I sat with someone whose house was swept away during the floods in KZN. I asked him how he makes sense of having lost everything.
“The gods were angry,” he said, “And there is nothing we could do.”
It was a catastrophe, I thought to myself. But catastrophes are easier to deal with than tragedies.
A tragedy is a slow downward spiral. We see it coming; the signs, the cracks, the squeaky wheel. But because they are small, we say, “Agg! I will make time to sort this out…”
Eventually, things fall apart, and we wonder, “How did I get here?”
But there’s good news. The upward spiral works the same way as the downward spiral. Some people collide with the mighty hand of God, and through providence, their lives change overnight.
But for the most part, the words polepole best describe how the upward spiral works.
A good friend and mentor climbed Mt Kilimanjaro on crutches.
Before I met him, I thought cycling 3000km from Musina to CT, which I am doing on 03 April 2023, was crazy. And then I had to find my jaw when I heard his story.
He is a haemophiliac, which means his blood does not clot. Over the years, his condition affected his joints, and he became bedridden. Then, he decided to climb Mr Kilimanjaro on crutches, which is insane.
When he had nothing left and collapsed on the mountain, barely able to breathe, his porters and friends slung his arms over their shoulders, effectively becoming his new human crutches.
Their mantra was “polepole,” meaning slow-slow or gentle. One foot after another. Several hours later, they submitted Mt Kili.
As I reflect on the mountains in my life, I hope you will take this message and, instead of wishing your challenges away, humble yourself before them and say:
Polepole.
