As reported by Binaj Gurubacharya and picked up by Associated Press, Binaj tells us that a British mountaineer (David Sharp, 34 years old) desparate for oxygen had collapsed along a well-traveled route to the summit. Dozens (emphasis mine) of people walked right past him, unwilling to risk their own ascents. Within hours, he was dead.
As Marlon Brando whispers in the last lines of the movie Apocalypse Now, "the horror. The horror."
It made me think of the parable of the Good Samaritan (LK 25:37 NIV):
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
Now, what we don't know is who the victim was, but we do know that a priest (whom we would have expected compassion from) and a Levite (from the tribe of Levi, one of the 12 tribes of Israel) rejected the opportunity to be of assistance. Then, a Samaritan offered help at a personal cost to himself. Samaritans were of mixed ethnic backgrounds and were racially mistreated by Jews as second class citizens. However, in this story it is a despised person who displays the loving your neighbor principle.
Sherry and I had some interesting conversation as we read the Everest account. We asked each other a series of questions that went something like this (for context, we are weekend warrior middle aged athletes):
- If you were out for a leisure walk with the dog, and came across someone who had been hurt; would you help him? No hesitation, of course.
- If you were pressured for time to get your walk done and get to work, would you help him? No hesitation, of course.
- If you were training for a race, would you stop and help him? No hesitation, of course.
- If you were in the race, but placing high was not your priority, would you stop and help him? No hesitation, of course.
- If you were training for a race, and you knew you would be in the top ten of all finishers, but this training run was very important to achieve that goal, would you stop and help him? A little hesitation, then of course.
- If you were in the race, and new you would place in the top ten, would you stop and help him, jeapordizing your place? Some hesitation, then a somewhat shallow yes.
- If you were in the race, and new you would place in the top three or even first place would you stop and help him? Now we had some equivocation and theorizing that someone else may stop, or the race officials would respond, or that paramedics just happened to be around the corner. I'm not sure if we ever got to yes. In other words, probably not.
- Now, what if you had paid thousands of dollars for a once in a lifetime shot to be able to say that you had ascended Mount Everest? Would you risk those bragging rights and fulfillment of perhaps a lifetime goal to help someone? WOULD YOU? WOULD I?
Well the story goes on to provide some interesting context:
"...many of today's Everest climbers are on commercial expeditions, some paying tens of thousands of dollars to guides who are under fierce pressure to get their clients to the summit. But, the story continues "In Sharp's case about 40 people are thought to have walk past him...the few that did stop to check on him - and at least one team did give him oxygen - said he was so near death there was nothing that could be done."
It's hard to make judgments like that when I'm removed and looking in as an outsider, but all things considered, I hope that I would have stopped to give him aid, and above that try to keep him alive or support a rescue attempt.
