What Better Place to Die

Introduction - Part A

Introduction

"Life is a journey,
and when you think it is close to ending,
it is just beginning."
—Barbara Kucera, Metamorphosis

Life is a journey, not a destination. It is a process, not an endpoint. Life is a mystery to be explored, not a problem to be solved.

As a veteran strategic planner, I had lived an “examined” life, as extolled by the Greek philosopher Socrates; but it took a “near death” experience for me to have the opportunity and the commitment to take greater charge of my life and, in the process, travel even deeper into my Self. If you are adventurous and courageous, you too can take that deeper Journey into the Self.

My life had followed an orderly and efficient series of phases. I graduated from college with degrees in Chemistry and Bible, earned an M.D., completed internship and residency, spent two years as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the CDC, and was named Chief of Pathology at a New England medical center, all by the age of thirty-three. For the next twenty-five years, I enjoyed a successful group practice in medicine and created a number of ventures in and outside the practice of Medicine. Surrounding myself with talented people and giving them an opportunity to soar was the key to my success.

During that time I married, divorced, remarried, and helped raise four fine children.  In 1995 I took early retirement from medical practice to enjoy the worlds of consulting, writing, speaking, and traveling, with a focus on mountaineering. I was also entering the world of the ageing Taoist who was given the freedom to roam and to study his life’s work now that his children were grown and independent. It was the world of self-actualization, at the top of the Hierarchy of Needs as described by psychologist Abraham Maslow.

The phases of one’s life may be divided into specific episodes, usually of shorter duration and often of greater intensity. An episode may include a tour of military duty, an internship in a law office or hospital, childbirth, an adventure in Mexico or Europe, or a short and intense, but ill-fated, romance.

For me, one of these episodes occurred October 23, 1999 on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, days before my sixty-first birthday. Although for years my life had focused largely on my busy medical practice, I had found the time to respond to the lure of the mountains. Mountaineering, that death-defying dance with gravity, offers freedom, challenge, risk, and (hopefully) success in summiting. Over several decades I had hiked on five continents and climbed on some of the highest and most dramatic mountains in the world—from Mt. Elbrus in Russia to Kilimanjaro in Africa to Aconcagua in Argentina—each the highest mountains in their respective continents.

I was never a pretender to stand atop Mt. Everest.

On those spectacular mountains I was a member of organized teams with highly-qualified guides. I always returned without a serious incident. In mountaineering, Goal #2 is to summit. Goal #1 is to return safely and intact.

The Mt. Washington episode was different. That which had started as a simple hike turned into a disastrous misadventure.

There is a popular concept that everyone should enjoy fifteen minutes of fame. I, however, have experienced a much longer period of infamy—of negative coverage on countless media outlets nationwide. There are three controversies surrounding my misadventure that merit consideration:

My use of a cellular telephone to call for rescue;

The fact that I was hiking solo;

My decision to press on, instead of turning back, when the weather changed from rain to snow.

Introduction- Part B

This book gives my perspective of the whole story and what I learned from it. You can decide which of my decisions or actions were foolish, which were too risky, which were just bad luck, and which, if any, were wise. Then you may ask yourself:

What would I have done?

Although the threat of death serves as the catalyst in this book, the focus is on life. We will celebrate life, the joys of life, all of our lives, here and now, and into the future. For yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, today is a gift—that is why it is called the present.

As I shared my story in keynote presentations and workshops, and as I wrote this book, a question emerged: Had my misadventure been a quest, in a mythical, yet real, sense? Had I been lured into a personal quest by marvelous snowflakes, when the weather changed from a dreary, rainy fall day into a winter wonderland?

My parents were from Norway, so I was raised on Norse myths and fairy tales. In grade school we studied Beowulf and the tales of King Arthur and the quest for the Holy Grail. In college, we studied Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, the ultimate Christian allegory. During one summer I attended the University of Oslo Summer School and studied Norse myths and Icelandic sagas.

In 1989, my world of myths was expanded, yet paradoxically focused and simplified, when I attended a workshop at The Esalen Institute in California. The workshop celebrated the life and writings of Joseph Campbell, based on his book Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell wrote that there is a commonality of myths throughout time and place. He also noted that there are generally three phases of the quest in mythology: separation, initiation, and return. These phases, these rites of passage, may be started by a “call to adventure,” and evolve through a series of thresholds: the possibility of meeting interesting characters and of gaining supernatural aids or assistance, then rescue and finally return. The quest takes the hero into a new and unknown world of trials and testing, and back home.

The hero always travels solo.

However, a true hero who returns from a quest dies as an ordinary person and is reborn as a new or eternal person. The returning hero has changed and then lives a new life, for he then lives in two worlds.

It would be presumptuous for me to equate my three-day misadventure and the months of follow-up physical recovery, introspection, and resolution to the great mythical quests. The classic quests include the tribulation of Odysseus, who sailed the Mediterranean for years; the struggles of Gautama the Buddha, who spent much of a lifetime to gain enlightenment; and the sufferings of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and was chained to Mt.Elbrus. For every hero—even an antihero—there is not only an initial call to adventure; there may be a final call to share the new message gained on the quest. It may be a message that falls on deaf, even angry, ears.

Although my own experience was on a much smaller scale than these mythical quests, I share my message in this book. I address my misadventure as both a physical and spiritual quest, as well as a key source of lessons learned that will impact the remainder of my life. They will also redefine my view of death and contribute to a deeper understanding of my persona, the view I like to present to the public. But above all, the lessons provide a deep exploration into my true nature, the genuine me.

I share my own Journey Into the Self.

It has been said that in the entire world, over all the ages, there are only two story themes:       

     Local person leaves town.

     Stranger comes to town.

This is a story of both.

                                   “The longest journey is the journey inward.”

                                                                    —Dag Hammarskjold