A thoughtful, gentle sort of winner always looks forward,
not back, and looks to benefit others as well as him or
herself. One thinks of Delmore Schwartz's 1935 short
story title, "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities", a phrase
taken from an epigraph Yeats used for his 1914 volume of
poems, Responsibilities.
Hillary's feat, his dream, carried with it the gifts of
friendship and responsibility towards others, and, for
himself, perpetual optimism, perpetual perseverance.
He climbed Everest without baggage, which is probably
why he made it to the top. We should all be so lucky; we
should all take a leaf from his book. H
HYLAND
