All my life I have refused to be for or against parties, for or against nations, for or against people.  I never seek novelty or the eccentric; I do not go from land to land to contrast civilizations.  I seek only, wherever I go, for the symbols of greatness, and as I have already said, they may be found in the eyes of a child, in the movement of a gladiator, in the heart of a gypsy, in twilight in Ireland or in moonrise over the deserts.
- Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

What is the greatness to which Henri refers? The eyes of a child suggests innocence, a different way of looking at the world. The movement of a gladiator suggests courage, and perhaps gracefulness. The heart of a gypsy joy and independence. Twilight in Ireland suggests tranquil beauty, quiet beauty. Moonrise over the deserts suggests stark beauty. All standards seem to revolve around that which is unique in a way that embodies a kind of quiet, perhaps subtle beauty.

When I think of that Henri quote, the next stream of thoughts that come to mind have to do with Charlie Porter’s definition of the role of style in mountain climbing. He was renowned, as a young man, with climbing the most difficult mountains and cliffs in the Americas and not talking about it. It was all about the style, the grace, the adventure of climbing. He did it for the experience, the challenge and not for the glory. When I knew him, as an older man, he was deeply curious about life. He wanted to explore life from as many different perspectives as he could accomplish before his time had ended. In an interview with Gripped Magazine in 1998, a few years after I interviewed him, he was quoted as saying:

”I’ve already got plenty of projects lined up in the years ahead,” he said. ”You know, once you answer one question, another always pops up.”

He died in 2014 of a heart attack at the age of 63 at his home in southern Chile. He owned boats that were available for hire by scientific expeditions for research. There’s an interesting profile of him here. I included a short excerpt from my interview in an earlier Pause for Beauty (The truths he had found in the mountains, July 26, 2013).

Here’s a photograph of him as a young man from a 1993 article in Rock and Ice. The photograph was taken in 1972 when he was 22 old.

All of this helps me to think through more carefully my definition of greatness. Integrity, especially when it is difficult, would be number one. Moral courage in the sense that Mark Twain meant it:

“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world,
and moral courage so rare.”

Independence of thought, but in a carefully thought-through way. Kindness. Bill Coperthwaite, Maine homesteader and yurt builder, had a quote nailed to the door of one of the outbuildings on his property,

All virtues are useless without tender heartedness.
- Richard Gregg

Here’s a picture of the yurt that Bill built and lived in a mile or so off the nearest road.

On the

O

On the bottom floor, Bill had stacked five years of firewood that he cut with a handsaw, and split with an axe. Referring, if I remember correctly, to something Thoreau said about measuring a man’s prosperity by the amount of firewood he had set aside, he told me, “That makes me the wealthiest man in Maine.”

I digress. Getting back to the qualities of greatness. A quiet humility. An open-mindedness. A receptivity to what can be learned from the world, from wild nature, from the mystery that surrounds. From others. Creativity would also be on the list. The ability to create evocative work that offers a glimpse into a new understanding or way of seeing.

To me, those would be the elements of greatness. No one possesses them all. Most of us possess some to a greater or lesser extent. Greatness would be in the degree to which a human being builds a life on these qualities. It is a practice. Discipline. Self-control. Focus. Imagination.

Thinking this through gives me standards to strive for. Your standards may be completely different. Good. But I think there is value to thinking through one’s own definition of greatness as distinct from that of the mainstream culture that surrounds. And then the real value is in striving to achieve them, all the while knowing that we will fall short. And being patient and forgiving with that.