This picture was taken on a recent trip to Seattle. A few days after our return a friend, who had made the trip a few weeks earlier, mentioned that she was wondering why Rainier was always covered by a blue haze. It occurred to me that all mountains have a blue haze over them because of ambient humidity and distance. The closer you get the less effect the humidity has on the view. The farther away you are the deeper the blue haze.
Why are most images on Mt. Rainier covered by a blue haze? Because most folks keep their distance. Mt. Rainier is not simply a mountain, it is an active volcano! It pays to respect the inner life of a volcano.
What does this respect mean?
First, it means to not take any incidents that may happen on the volcano personally. There are things happening in the depths that are beyond yours and the volcano’s control. When bad stuff happens, don’t blame the volcano. Stuff happens on volcanos.
Second, because stuff happens, people can get hurt. The risk is not only real, but inevitable. The volcano is not responsible for protecting us from harm. We are responsible for protecting ourselves.
Finally, enjoy the volcano for what it is, nothing more and nothing less. Volcanos are awe-filled wonders of nature. They stir deep experiences of both fear and fascination. We can learn and be inspired by getting to know a volcano.
I learned this respect for a volcano from the story of Harry R. Truman. Mr. Truman chose to live on Spirit Lake at the foot of Mount St. Helens. He has taught me much about living with a volcano.
Harry was born in 1896 in the mountains of West Virginia. His family moved to Washington state when he was a child. They settled on 160 acres of farmland in the eastern part of the state. After a stint in the Army during WWI, Harry returned to California and tried his hand at prospecting. But his goal of becoming rich didn’t really work out. He moved to SW Washington and ran a gas station. He married and started his family.
But the small town gas station proved too confining for his expansive spirit. He leased 50 acres from the Northern Pacific Railroad overlooking Spirit Lake at the foot of Mount St. Helens. He built a gas station and grocery store and eventually expanded it to become Mount St. Helens Lodge. He operated the Lodge for 52 years.
Life on Mount St. Helens was not an easy one. He divorced his first wife, married a second, and quickly divorced her as well. He met and married the sister of his girlfriend who he called Eddie. Eddie and Harry ran the Lodge until her death in 1978.
Harry became a local character. He made his own rules in his little kingdom by the lake. Local law enforcement officials were well acquainted with him but he was never arrested. He had strong opinions about society, politics and had an in-born hatred of old people. He shared these opinions freely, totally unconcerned about others agreement. At the most generous he was called “colorful.” He was part of the Mount St. Helens mystique for 50+ years.
After Eddies’ death in 1978, Harry all but closed the Lodge. He still rented out a few cabins and boats, but he was settling into a new life on his beloved Spirit Lake. His only companion was his beloved volcano.
Within a few months, the volcano began showing signs of waking up. By the start of 1980, the seismologists were predicting a major eruption. By early Spring they began to warn everyone that a major eruption was imminent and issued evacuation advisories. Everyone accepted the advice and began leaving the mountain. Everyone except for Harry.
He is quoted as saying, “I don’t have any idea whether it will blow,” he said, “but I don’t believe it to the point that I’m going to pack up.” “If the mountain goes, I’m going with it. This area is heavily timbered, Spirit Lake is in between me and the mountain, and the mountain is a mile away, the mountain ain’t gonna hurt me.”
His defiance became part of the saga leading up to the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 17, 1980. Despite one last plea to leave on May 16th, Harry went to bed that night in a lodge he had built and operated for over half a century. Harry and his 16 cats perished when a river of super-heated ash came down the mountainside and buried the lake and the lodge under 150 feet of the new Mount St. Helens.
Some say that Harry was a fool. His family is reported to have said that he underestimated the danger. Many locals just saw him as “Harry being Harry,” defiant to the end. But I suspect there was more to Harry than either his family or friends could see.
I think his niece understood her Uncle best of all. She was quoted following the eruption by saying, “He used to say that’s my mountain and my lake and he would say those are my arms and my legs. If he would have seen it the way it is now, I don’t think he would have survived.” Harry was where he wanted to be. He spent a long and productive life on edge of Spirit Lake. He had a lived a full life. A volcano can teach you a great deal and Harry sat at its feet for a lifetime. He and his volcano understood one another.
In the weeks leading up to the eruption, law enforcement tried to convince Harry that he was not safe. They told him the eruption would come and he would die. To which Harry replied, “You couldn’t pull me out with a mule team. That mountain’s part of Truman and Truman’s part of that mountain.” Harry knew what it meant to live at the foot of a volcano. It was where he chose to live.
As I look at the picture above and the many others I took that day, I think about Harry and what the volcano meant to him. He did not take the shaking and danger of a volcano personally. He accepted the volcano for what it was. He must have lived in awe of that volcano. He counted it a privilege to live and die there on its flanks after learning all that it had to teach him about himself and the world around him
Not every volcano is made of rock. Most folks have either lived on or at the foot of a volcano. In our lifetimes we encounter volcanos in events, people, and circumstances. If you have spent any time with one you have discovered that these volcanic people, places, and times have a deeper life. All the trembling and shaking that appears at the surface rises out of those depths.
Some folks have deeply unsettling inner experiences that grow out of trauma or other times of deep, intense pain. They seem to quake with emotions that appear, unbidden and unwanted. These folks cannot control their depth or their appearing. They are as unaware of them as they are of the back of their head. Their hair may be totally out of control and they may never know it! They are likely just as surprised when their soul begins to quake.
It is the same with some places and situations in our lives. There are places that evoke deep rumblings of discontent or despair. For some folks, cemeteries or hospitals cause these deep quakes. For others it may be a doctor’s office or a classroom. It could the edge of a canyon or floating over the ocean’s depths. These uninvited feelings become unwelcome visitors to our lives.
These deep emotional quakes also occur in moments when we witness the death of someone close to us or some other unforeseen disappointment. These quakes can visit over and over again when we are reminded of these places and experiences. It is likely that each of us have lived at the foot of our own Mount St. Helens as well as walked with people who live with their own private volcano boiling inside.
All we can do is to respect the volcano! If you are able, keep your distance and enjoy from a safe distance. But this is not always possible. Do not despair. Our lives are enriched by living with those who know about life on the volcano. Even more important, our inner volcano has much to teach us about our lives and the deeper sources of life that are available to those brave enough to risk getting to know the faults and fractures that shape our lives.
Learn to respect these living volcanos.
Do not take the inevitable eruptions personal. It will not be the volcano’s fault if it erupts! Even human volcanos have little choice over the timing or violence of their eruptions.
Love them anyway. As Mr. Rogers used to say, love them just the way they are. The cauldron beneath the surface is part of them. Love them and yourselves, anyway.
Let them teach you all that they have to offer.
Your own inner volcano will help you understand that which is really important to you. It will assist you in finding strengths and resources you did not know existed in your soul. It will help you understand yourself and see the inner struggles of others whom you encounter each and every day.
The volcanos in other people will also help you understand and appreciate the broader setting of life and how we live and love along the rugged mountain trails. They can help us know and enjoy the tranquility between eruptions.
When the final, inevitable eruption comes, may we die in the arms of a rich and meaningful life filled with wonder and joy. May we have discovered a peace that is possible only after a long life on the shores that the deep lake of the spirit.
Blessings,
Bob Dees