Perspective

In the summer of 1979 my dad sent me to Outward Bound in Colorado. The only difference between the summer and winter sessions was the addition of 1 pair of long underwear.

Once in Denver we were loaded onto a bus that took us into the mountains. It pulled inot a rest stop where we were told to get off the bus and run up a fire road to the staging area – 3 miles away. This was a weeding process to make sure teams were evenly created. For those of you who live at sea level and have tried to run in Colorado you understand. During the next 21 days I:
* Got hypothermia after falling into a stream
* Got altitude sickness because it just happens to some people
* Got frost bite in the tips of my fingers and toes which took 6 months for the feeling to return
* Did a few peak assents
* Was in 3 avalanches – 2 snow and 1 rock. The snow avalanches were small but the rock avalanche threw a 60 lb bolder into my chest that almost threw me off a 100’ cliff. I could smell ozone caused by the friction of the rocks – I’ll never forget that smell. I was the only injury that year and it took 3 days to get me to the closest hospital. I still have the scar on my arm where part of the bolder hit me.

This was the hardest thing I had ever done but I survived and am reminded every day that we are capable of more than we know. When I got home my dad asked, “How was camp”. CAMP? I almost die and he calls it camp!

Years later I attended the 50th anniversary of Iwo Jima with my dad in Washington DC. I saw Medal of Honor recipients, met some Navahos, learned about code talking and their time in the South Pacific. I also learned little more about my dad’s time on Iwo Jima. I learned he saw the flag being raised the 1st and 2nd time. How his buddies were killed and how his parents thought he was killed. They learned he wasn’t about a month later when he was shipped to Hawaii. Now I understand why dad thought Outward Bound was just camp.

The sayings ‘walk a mile in someone’s shoes’ or ‘the shoes on the other foot’ etc… are so true. We get caught up in our own lives without thinking about the other persons experience. Next time you are about to respond to someone you might want to take a deep breath and think about their perspective first. Maybe its camp to them…