Climbing the Eiger

Yesterday we all went down to the science museum to watch the latest Omni film "The Alps". It was about a guy who's dad died climbing the Eiger when the boy was 9. Now he has a 9 year old daughter, so what does he do? He returns to the mountain to climb it. Thank goodness that he survives, or that might have been one bitter young woman. Anyway, the film's footage of the Swiss alpine villages made me yearn to get out of this prairie. But I had no desire kindled in me to do any mountain climbing. Theo, on the other hand.... Today as we were walking down the street he threw himself at every snowbank with passion, surmounting each one and declaring he had topped the Eiger. The snowbank created from plows clearing a large parking lot at the funeral home nearby created a huge snowbank with a very imposing 'North Face' at the top. The hill was probably 15-18 feet high. Theo easily climbed to the bottom of this final face. He then took some time to throw his body up to the very pinnacle. And he came flying right over the top and flew off the other side. He kind of cascaded down the icy hill and came to a stop at the bottom. He looked up at us with a smile. Later, when he came in from outside he said, "Mom, you know when I went fell off the top of the Eiger back there? Well, it feeled like I was flying!" I asked, "And was that a good feeling or a bad feeling?" "A great one!!!!!" he declared and ran off. I found him later in a sleeping bag careening down our stairs at great speed, a new trick picked up from last night's babysitter. I think we need to carefully screen movies we see from now on. And what's coming soon to the Omni? Everest.