Sad news from New Zealand this morning, with the passing of Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two men (with sherpa Tenzing Nagay) to successfully climb Mount Everest. From all accounts he was a simple man who happened to do something extraordinary, and it is to his credit that he apparently never let that go to his head. A kiwi coworker was telling me today how revered he is over there, and a great source of pride for a country which, besides its tremendous rugby team, does not have a very visible international profile. His lifelong friendship with Nagay, modesty about his exploits, as well as his continued work for the communities living around the Nepalese Himalayas (helping build schools and other badly needed infrastructure through the Himalayan Trust), speak to the quality of a man who led a great and fulfilling life. The fact that he will be getting a State funeral seems highly fitting.
We live in a celebrity-obsessed culture, where most people seem more interested in Britney’s latest meltdown than in what’s going on in Pakistan, and in which so many celebrities are famous because they are famous, with nary an apparent skill to account for it besides being media-savvy. In this world a person like Sir Edmund Hillary is a definite throwback. Not to go all Ayn Rand (yeech), but hopefully stories like his can remind people of how greatness can be simple. The point is not to worship people, but to celebrate their actions, especially when they are so eloquent. Actions speak louder than words goes the saying, and no one was a better example of that than Sir Hillary.
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