Unclimbed Mountains

Summary

This ordinary conversation between two people somehow manages to traffic in the profound as the traveler reflects: “It doesn’t seem so much to climb a mountain you’ve worked around the foot of all your life.” It feels somehow very sad that this farmer spends his entire life staring up at the mountain’s looming form, but never once ventures to the summit. All he knew about the mountain and about the spring near the top, he learned secondhand. The mountain and the brook were there all along; he could have set out upon the upward trail, but somehow never did.