(I feel compelled to post this hidden gem: ->)
Summit Of Mount Freedom: By Michael Langford
Once upon a time in the land of fictional characters created to illustrate certain valuable lessons, there lived a woman named Liberated Sage.
Liberated Sage was one of the few people in the world who had successfully climbed to the summit of the thirty thousand foot mountain called Mount Freedom. She liked the summit so much she decided to stay there and live on the summit permanently.
Liberated Sage had read all of the books that had been written about how to climb Mount Freedom and she had read almost all of the books written about mountain climbing in general.
Because she had successfully climbed to the summit of Mount Freedom and because she lived there on the summit permanently she knew which books were accurate and which books would be most helpful to those few who actually wanted to climb Mount Freedom and not just read about it.
Liberated Sage knew that the most accurate and helpful book about how to climb Mount Freedom was a book titled:
“You Actually Have To Climb To Reach The Summit Of Mount Freedom.”
Some people sent emails to Liberated Sage to give her advice on many topics. Those who had never climbed to the summit of Mount Freedom sent her advice about how to climb to the summit of Mount Freedom. Those who did not know how to live permanently on the summit of Mount Freedom sent her advice about how to live permanently on the summit of Mount Freedom.
There were three people who sent Liberated Sage emails to inform her that she was wrong about which book was the best, most helpful and most accurate book about how to climb Mount Freedom.
The first person was Mr. Scholar. The second person was Mr. Translator. The third person was Mr. Arrogant Advisor.
All three of these people, Mr. Scholar, Mr. Translator and Mr. Arrogant Advisor agreed that the best book on the subject of how to climb Mount Freedom was the book titled:
“How To Climb Mount Freedom While Sitting On Your Couch Watching Television”
The subtitle of that book was:
“The Couch Potato’s Guide To Climbing Mount Freedom”
Mr. Scholar, Mr. Translator, and Mr. Arrogant Advisor had never climbed higher than one thousand feet on Mount Freedom. Because of their experiences climbing those one thousand feet, all three of them thought they had enough experience to be qualified to correct Ms Liberated Sage.
One of the many things that Liberated Sage knew that Mr. Scholar, Mr. Translator, and Mr. Arrogant Advisor did not know was that the obstacles and challenges that one faces after one thousand feet on thirty thousand foot Mount Freedom are not the same as the obstacles that one faces in the first thousand feet. And more importantly Liberated Sage knew what the route was all the way up to the summit, not just the route of the first thousand feet. After one thousand feet the route took many twists and turns and had hundreds of different obstacles.
Some of the mountain climbing books had been translated from Japanese into English. Liberated Sage was not fluent in Japanese. Mr. Translator was fluent in Japanese and therefore Mr. Translator thought that he was far more qualified to determine which books were more accurate and helpful for would-be mountain climbers. Mr. Translator was not correct in that assumption. Suppose that a map of your neighborhood is translated from Japanese into English. You do not need to know even one word of Japanese to know if the English translation is an accurate description of your neighborhood because you are familiar with your neighborhood.
There were thousands of well worn paths that led part of the way up Mount Freedom. The reason they were well worn paths is because people were afraid to actually go all the way to the summit of Mount Freedom, so they chose paths that did not lead to the summit of Mount Freedom. The paths that led only part of the way to the summit of Mount Freedom had a reputation for leading all the way to the top of Mount Freedom. Although the people who were using the well worn paths on the surface of their mind believed they were on a path that led all the way to the summit of Mount Freedom, deep down at another level of consciousness they knew that they were on a path that did not lead to the summit of Mount Freedom.
Being one of only a few people who had ever successfully made the climb all the way to the Summit of Mount Freedom, Liberated Sage knew the path that leads all the way to the summit from direct experience. Thus when a book had errors that described the path inaccurately, Liberated Sage could see those errors. Liberated Sage never stated that the translators had translated incorrectly from a technical translation standpoint. She only stated that the English translation contained information that did not accurately describe the path up the mountain and that would not be helpful to those very few who were planning to actually climb to the summit of Mount Freedom.
Because Mr. Translator, Mr. Scholar and Mr. Arrogant Advisor had never climbed above one thousand feet, they had no real basis for determining what the path is like up to the summit. What they had was a lot of concepts and theories that they had read about. Mount Freedom is thirty thousand feet tall and Mr. Translator, Mr. Scholar, and Mr. Arrogant Advisor were missing twenty nine thousand feet of vital first hand information about the path that leads to the summit of Mount Freedom. However, Mr. Translator, Mr. Scholar and Mr. Arrogant Advisor believed that they had all the correct information for three reasons:
1. Because they were equating what they had read and thought about with actual experience, when in fact reading and thinking about climbing is not at all the same as climbing.
2. They were terrified to go above one thousand feet so they substituted talking, reading, writing and thinking about climbing for actually climbing. They had no real intention of ever going above one thousand feet.
3. Like most people they had very little self-honesty. Self-honesty begins by actually discovering how one has not been honest with oneself.
On the other hand, since Liberated Sage had successfully climbed all the way to the summit of Mount Freedom, Liberated Sage did have a real basis for knowing that path, including the many obstacles.
Liberated Sage saw that sometimes the books would say turn right at a certain point when what was really needed was to turn left. In fact turning right would have put the climber into a deep hole that few climbers ever come back out of. Sometimes the books would say that a certain area was hard stable rock when Liberated Sage knew that it was thin flaky rock (almost as flaky as some of the climbers). So in order to help those few who intended to actually climb Mount Freedom, Liberated Sage wrote her own book titled:
“Reading, Thinking, Or Talking About Climbing To The Summit Of Mount Freedom Is Very Different From Actually Climbing To The Summit Of Mount Freedom.”
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