Mt Baker - Day 82-81 (The Painted Veil-the finale)

I am back in NY and the good doctor has once again accompanied me. This time it was during my 5AM MTA commute. He completed his story of the two lovers, sparing no detail, and making the daily slog a little more bearable. I had to wonder, however, why I should be repeating the tale here on this blog of mountaineering. Perhaps, in thinking about it, there may be no reason at all. I simply had a moment in time that was not completely predetermined. A rare event. However, travelling for days to a meeting , for weeks climbing a mountain, or, for that matter, years in a venture to a small village in rural China plagued with cholera does give time for self-discovery. Time to reconsider our place and, if you will, see our own"painted veil". This discovery does not necessarily have to come as a grand revelation from a major lifetime event such as that experienced by Kitty and Walter. It may come in small doses from brief interludes. Regardless, before I get back to preparing for the journey to the summit, let me finish what I learned from the good doctor.

As the story goes---Kitty, after days of solitude, finally ventures forth and enters the walled village of Mei-tan-fu. Accompanied by a local Englishman town official, she is introduced to a group of French nuns who run an orphanage. Kitty and her new companions become enduring partners. Our heroine begins to emerge as a deeply sympathetic individual, caring, and compassionate. She abandons her shallow desires and soon reveals her insightful and nurturing nature, both to the orphans, as well to those souls around her. She and Walter begin to see each other in a new light. Their discoveries draw them closer together. Their awareness of the passion and profound tenderness within each makes a bond that is foreever life changing. But, alas, Walter contracts cholera. He weakens and finally succumbs but not before learning that Kitty was pregnant, the true father uncertain (remember Charles Townsend?)

Kitty returns to her former life with its many shallow relationships. Her mother dies. She renounces Charles Townsend ("a most vain and fatuous ass"). She eventually leaves all behind to search for a more meaningful existence, to care for her new child as well as her aging father. Her greatest desire was that she had learned the deepest capacity for "compassion and charity". Her will remained to follow the "path to peace that she dimly saw before her".

The story concludes and the good doctor and I part ways. So now what - the painted veil, an allegory for the coming adventure- to find the capacity for charity, to place aside shallow pursuits to find a greater purpose?? Or just some free time on a plane in a lovesick moment? Perhaps, it's just an unexpected , fleeting event as a result of this whole expedition. An expedition which involves many new "work-outs", including writing a blog. As much time as this took, it will only strengthen my own personnel commitment to this whole adventure. Anyway, time to get back to the OR. Aerobics and weights this early evening