Today, a word about Mountaintops.
My wife has always had a thing for the mountains. She loved them when she first saw them on vacation as a little girl, and she grew to love them even more on a Carthage Choir tour to Europe. (cue: Randall Thompson’s “Ye shall have a Song” which climaxes with “to come into the mount of the Lord!”) Colorado was the destination of our honeymoon back in the spring of 1992 and we have managed to make it back a couple of times since- although not nearly as often as we (and especially she) would like.
Six years ago, Kathy and I were all set to return to that part of a country for a trip that was to include Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and Mount Rushmore plus a visit to Cheyenne to visit a dear Luther classmate of mine. We bought all the books to be properly prepared and even invested in our first smart phone expressly for the trip. (I remember asking my wife ‘wouldn’t it be nice while driving through the middle of South Dakota to be able to look up fun facts about Wall Drug on the internet?” She agreed. For once, I was the one leading the charge in exploring a new technology.) We could not have been more excited. Then one of my siblings was unexpectedly hospitalized with a very serious illness and we unhesitatingly canceled our plans so I could be with him. As we did so, we promised each other that it was in fact a postponement rather than a cancelation.
Six long years later, Kathy and I finally managed to take that postponed trip- and I suspect that the fact that it was such a long time coming is one reason why we had such an extraordinarily wonderful time: we were so incredibly grateful to be back in the mountains. By the way, the trip included some lovely time on the “flat lands” as well, such as a beautiful open-air family wedding up in Grand Rapids, MN at the start of the trip and a visit to my former hometown of Colton, SD towards the end. There was even time for a stop at the aforementioned Wall Drug and a delightful visit with our dear friends Jack and Mim Potter in Trimont, MN as we headed home. But this trip, first and foremost, was about the mountains – and the joy of leaving professional responsibilities far behind us in order to drink in the spectacular splendor that was all around us. Among our most memorable experiences was that of driving from Billings, Montana to Yellowstone National Park via what is affectionately known as the Bear Tooth Highway- a rather treacherous route, not for the faint of heart, but extraordinarily beautiful. There was Yellowstone itself, with all of its beauty, its famous sights, plus the joy of seeing a bear, an elk, and many bison in the wild. (Our first bison encounter occurred earlier when we drove through Teddy Roosevelt National Park. We had driven through almost all of the park and had seen only prairie dogs. “Well, if we don’t see a bison today,” I finally said, “we still have Yellowstone tomorrow.” No sooner had I said those words when we rounded the next curve and suddenly came up behind a huge, beautiful bison walking slowly down the highway in the left lane. It was the thrill of a lifetime.) From Yellowstone, we proceeded to Grand Teton National Park and found ourselves utterly mesmerized by those spectacular mountains as well. (More than once, we cranked up to full blast our CD of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing ‘America the Beautiful’ and used it as our own spine-tingling soundtrack to the wonders all around us.) And although it was sad to eventually leave the Rockies behind, we were deeply impressed by the beauty of the Black Hills of South Dakota and the majesty of Mount Rushmore (which I had never seen and which Kathy had not seen in 43 years.)
If there’s anything I can say about this trip that might begin to convey how special it was, it’s that I truly didn’t want it to end. That’s exceedingly uncommon for me. I love the work that I do (it’s almost play) so I almost never feel the urge to ‘get out of Dodge’ the way my wife does, and although we always have a great time traveling together, I’m always perfectly happy to return to the friendly and familiar sights and sounds and smells 0f home. But this trip to the mountains was incredibly fun and if there had been some way to make it go on still longer, I would have been all for it. Part of it was just the joy of seeing Kathy so radiantly happy to be back in her favorite part of the country. But I didn’t just love this trip in that sort of secondhand way; I loved it just as much for me. I loved being someplace where there was jaw-dropping beauty literally all around us – the kind of beauty that no camera on earth can fully capture. You simply must be there to take it in with your own disbelieving eyes.
There are mountaintop experiences that involve literal mountains … and others that are about something altogether different. Exactly one week after Kathy and I returned from our 3800-mile trip out west, I had the joyous opportunity of returning to my alma mater – Luther College in Decorah, Iowa – for the Weston Noble Alumni Choir. Over 130 singers from across the country gathered for a week of rehearsals that culminated in an inspiring, spine-tingling Friday night concert. It was a truly amazing experience to be singing again under the direction of our beloved mentor- and because this year’s repertoire was based on beloved Nordic Choir favorites from the past, our sense of stepping back in time was even more vivid than in years past. It meant that we were not only experiencing New Mountaintop Moments but also able to revisit some of the most important Mountaintop Moments of our past. (And because this was the very last Alumni Choir, according to Mr. Noble’s own request, all that we did this week was tinged with a very special poignancy.)
So what do these kind of mountaintop moments experienced in a group like Nordic have to do with the more literal mountaintop moments one has as you travel through the Grand Tetons or stand on the brim of Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon? I think what those experiences have in common is that time miraculously stands still, the outside world fades into insignificance, and we find ourselves in the presence of something much bigger than we are- something we can scarcely take in, let alone comprehend or fully understand. We find ourselves leaving the Ordinary behind, and step into the Extraordinary. We are humbled …. rendered all but speechless …. and our hearts almost burst open with gratitude.
Back when I was in high school, a very young Amy Grant (herself in high school in those days) recorded a neat song called “Mountaintop.” The verses talk about how much we all want to have those exciting mountaintop experiences, while the refrain reminds us that “we have to come down from the mountaintop” sooner or later. The gist of the song’s lyrics is that mountaintops aren’t actually worth all that much unless we find a way to take their joys (and their lessons) with us as we return to our normal lives “in the valley below.” As the summer winds down and a new school year begins, I hope and expect that “my valley” will be filled with radiant memories of this summer’s mountaintops …. some of the most intense, memorable and precious of my entire life.