The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life

by David Brooks

The people who have been made larger by suffering are brave enough to let parts of their old self die. Down in the valley, their motivations changed. They’ve gone from self-centered to other-centered.

In The Age of Anxiety, W. H. Auden wrote, We would rather be ruined than changed We would rather die in our dread Than climb the cross of the moment And let our illusions die.

“Your pain is deep and it won’t just go away,” Nouwen continues. “It is also uniquely yours, because it is linked to some of your earliest life experiences. Your call is to bring that pain home. As long as your wounded part remains foreign to your adult self, your pain will injure you as well as others.” As the saying goes, suffering that is not transformed is transmitted.

Listen to your life,” Frederick Buechner wrote. “See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”

Listening to your life means having patience. Many of us confront most of life with a prematurely evaluating attitude. We have a natural tendency to make up our mind instantly, the moment we encounter something. The problem is that once we’ve filed something away with a judgment—even our very selves—we stop seeing it in all its complexity. The wilderness teaches negative capability, the ability to rest in uncertainty, to not jump to premature conclusions.

“Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.” This is the heart fulfilled.

Character emerges from our commitments.

When your life is defined by fervent commitments, you are on the second mountain.

When you are serving those in need you see pain and injustice close up. The closer you get to wisdom, Rohr continues, the more of your own shadow you see, and the more of other people’s shadow, and the more you realize how much we need each other. Hope gets infused with realistic awareness.

“What I do is as simple and common as the laughter of a child,” Mother Teresa once said.

“A person’s life can be meaningful only if she cares fairly deeply about some things, only if she is gripped, excited, interested, engaged,”