Because it is there
"Because it is there. The famous British mountaineer George Leigh Mallory, on a lecture tour of America in 1922, gave that response
to a reporter who asked why men try to climb Mount Everest. The phrase has taken on the meaning of doing something for its own sake.
Was this a tired brush-off of an unanswerable question? Woody and I believed not. To us, Mallory's answer had a deeper meaning
connected with the mystery of life, with an eternal feeling that comes in high and holy places. To us "it" was a
transcendental state of completeness. My reading of Emerson and Thoreau had convinced me that a heightened transcendental state was part of human nature,
even though I had not experienced it directly. Could the "it" Mallory spoke of be the same as the heightened state of the
transcendentalists? What was that heightened state? Was it real or imaginary?
Through the ages, legends and songs have advised us to go find "it" on the mountain, and that was our goal-to find IT on the
mountain. But we barely spoke of our goal for fear of being labeled mad, like Maurice Wilson."
- The Phaselock Code
- Chapter 2, "Dumb Luck" by Roger Hart
Gen 1:2 - And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Job 26:14 - Lo, these [are] parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?
Scott, Thomas. "Genesis 1:2," The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Blue Letter Bible. 1836. 9 Jul 2004. 25 Apr 2006.
<http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Gen/1/2.html>.
26:14 Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! How faint is the whisper29 we hear of him! But who can understand the thunder of his power?
http://www.bible.org/netbible/job26.htm
Gen 1:2 Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water.
http://www.bible.org/netbible/gen1.htm