John Muir (1838 to 1914) and advice for surviving the Economic Crisis of 2008

John Muir was one of the first climbers to explore and climb many of the peaks in Yosemite Valley in California’s High Sierra. During his first ascent of Mount Ritter in 1872, he became gripped with fear.

“I was brought to a dead stop, with arms outspread, clinging close to the face of the rock, unable to move hand or foot either up or down,” he wrote. “My doom appeared fixed. I must fall… But the terrible eclipse lasted only a moment, when life burst forth again with preternatural clearness. I seemed suddenly to become possessed of a new sense. The other self – the ghost of by-gone experiences, instinct, or Guardian Angel – call it what you will – came forward and assumed control. Then my trembling muscles became firm again, every rift and flaw was seen as through a microscope, and my limbs moved with a positiveness and precision with which I seemed to have nothing at all to do. Had I been borne aloft upon wings, my deliverance could not have been more complete.”

It’s those moments – when you do something you think you can’t possibly do – that you find out exactly who you are and what you are made of.

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