Next week, famed mountaineer Ed Webster comes to Skidompha Library in Damariscotta for a talk and book signing. The amiable Webster will discuss his five years in Tibet and highlight his pioneering of a never-before-climbed route up Mt. Everest.
Webster has carved out a piece of history for himself in one of the most dangerous arenas on Earth and his talk is sure to be riveting.
Down at sea level, Webster no doubt faces the same challenges the rest of us face: bills, mortgages, school schedules and the like, but he has made his career up high. It should be noted though, that for all of his accomplishments, Webster has made the deliberate choice for himself, to risk his life for what he loves.
Webster’s achievements should not obscure two less celebrated, but no less heroic, achievements by locals who have climbed their own mountains.
Sixteen-year-old Donald Cundy will receive some recognition for his efforts when he receives a Teens Who Care Award next month.
As a young man who suffered a life altering injury at a perilously young age, it would be a waste but maybe, in some respects, understandable if Cundy allowed himself to wallow in the muck of self-pity.
Instead, he has thrown off the shackles of despair and, not yet out of high school, has actively reached out to serve others.
If he does nothing else with his life but serve as a Big Brother to another young person in need, Cundy has done something to make the world a better place.
Speaking of mountain climbing, this week Skidompha plays host to a survivor of a different sort.
Retired merchant marine officer Darryl Hagar managed to climb his own mountain of addiction and recovery and remember it well enough to write his memoir.
To talk to Hagar is like talking to a man possessed, but his is an understandable mission. Like all addicts and alcoholics who have struck rock bottom, Hagar knows the depths to which the soul can sink when it is weighed down with substance abuse and, like Cundy, but differently, he too is a man working to make the world a better place.
