That scream of

YES FUCKING YES

that you just heard rising out of a western Denver suburb at almost 4 am would be me, agreeing.

Jesus, Jessica, the level of self-absorption that this speaks to simply boggles the mind. I climbed Kilimanjaro (okay, BFD) so now I’m going to find a way to shove this in people’s faces at every opportunity because, DUDE, nobody else has?

Since between thirty and fifty THOUSAND people attempt, that makes me a very small face in a very large crowd of millions over the course of decades.

Yah, it was special to me, it was a life-changing experience.

But to your point, that does not give me the right to use it as a velvet-wrapped hammer with which to pound the shit out of everyone else that I now consider a peon because they haven’t done what the Almighty I have done.

Perhaps one of the most delightful lessons I have learned in all my years speaking professionally — which has morphed in the most lovely ways to attending to my Medium commenters- is that my audience is almost always as smart as or one hell of a lot smarter than I am (the latter is much more true). The breathtaking arrogance of assuming that who and what I am is ever so much more interesting than the idiots I’m talking to or writing for is a good way to not only insult but also lose any regard I might have been offered as a courtesy.

I do live an interesting life. Yeah. But holy shit in so many ways so does everyone else. What makes me interesting is the way I find others interesting. What makes me fun to talk to is how well I tease out what’s interesting in others.

When I hold that out for them to see, put a spotlight on who they are, what a gift.

I think I see another article here.