Howard Putter

I remember climbing with John many years ago in the Stuart Range.  I was hot and tired and in the distance was a shiny, blank, large, pink wall.  It looked impenetrable so I turned to John and said, "Why bother to walk all the way to the base when clearly we wouldn't be able to climb it?"  John looked at me and said  "Can you do the next step?"  Then after I agreed the next step was no problem, he said, "Keep going until you can't do the next step."  We kept going and soon we were on the summit.

This is one of life's great metaphors. Often we see in the distance an obstacle we think we can't overcome, so we think why bother and we give up.  If we keep going until we can't do the next step we accomplish a lot more in life and find that many perceived obstacles in the distance aren't insurmountable.

Happy Birthday John,

Howard Putter

Copyright 2004, John W. Roper. All Rights Reserved.