About a year ago (December of 2014), I wrote about the rock climber Alex Honnold. Honnold has become famous for his remarkable and death defying climbs on massive rock walls throughout the world. He never uses a rope when he climbs; if he slips, he falls to his death.  Many climbers admire him.  They worry about him, too.
     Honnold is known for his ability to deal with fear.  He seems to have the capacity to work through any fear he experiences on the rock, to remain calm in every situation, to stay rational at every turn.  He is not stressed that he is climbing thousands of feet above the earth without a rope.
     Honnold does not believe in God.  In his Alone on the Wall, an account of his life and thoughts that he co-wrote with David Roberts, Honnold speaks candidly about his misgivings about religion and the divine.  He experiences a sense of awe, yes, but he attributes it to the beauty of nature, and nothing beyond it.
     Given his occupation, to some people that Honnold does not believe in God seems irrational. Why would he not, the argument goes:  he defies death constantly.  On the other hand, if we accept, as Honnold does, that we all one day will die then, God or not, does it make a difference?
     In a way, I suppose not.  God or not, one day, we all will die.  And nature's beauty is unspeakably entrancing.  Why not conclude that this world is all that is?
     Perhaps we can.  For me, however, whatever I do with my life and whenever I leave it, I would always be wondering.  Besides living with love, zest, and wonder, why am I really here?
     I need to know what I cannot, in myself, know.
     Be well, Alex.