William Henry Schmidt- and his tunnel.
Have you ever done something which gains nothing? I am sure you have as our values keep changing when the time passes. Something, which was very valuable a decade ago is considered as valueless today. And this is what happened to William Henry Schmidt, and his tunnel.
William Henry Schmidt, often referred to as "Burro" Schmidt, was a prospector who dedicated over 38 years of his life to digging a tunnel through a mountain in the Mojave Desert, California. His goal was to create a safer, more direct route to transport ore from his mining claims. Working alone and using hand tools, he painstakingly chipped away at the hard rock, eventually carving a 2,087-foot-long tunnel. Despite the completion of better routes rendering his tunnel unnecessary, Schmidt's determination and perseverance turned his labor into a legendary feat, embodying the spirit of relentless human endeavor. His tunnel remains a testament to his extraordinary resolve and is now a historical landmark.
However, I am sure it was not so glamorous, as it sounds for him, who worked day after day, major part of his life digging a tunnel. And as it turned out, halfway through the tunnel building, there were a system of roads connecting Last Chance Canyon to Mojave making his tunnel futile. Except, for this man, for whom the tunnel was not futile. Most of us would give up at this point, as there is no use digging a tunnel that nobody ever is going to use. But he has kept on going. And there something interesting happens. As you can see although the value of the tunnel for everyone else declined as the road was completed, the value of the tunnel did not decline for him. He has already invested his time, and I am sure he thought that he had dreams of seeing through to the other side of the mountain. Just like someone dedicate their time to write a book, someone trying to build a rocket to send people to mars, he had a dream to see the completion of his tunnel. I am sure, he felt the engineer himself, the child within, each and every day, which made him kept going.
I have dug holes in the banks at our little home. We used to make tunnels and little caves for our plastic soldiers to hide. We spend hours imagining things, playing in these tiny caves. Although they were tiny, for a mind of a child, they were not. I am sure, for William Schmidt, it was his tunnel that brought the same pleasure every day.
To make it clear, why, I have drawn a diagram from the point of view of William Schmidt and rest of us.
As you can see, the value of the tunnel, is variable. Both from the point of view of William Schmidt and from the point of view of the rest of us. Initially he did not have any value of it, as it was not even an idea. Once this Idea came to his mind, it created some value, so he actioned on it. And as long as he kept going, and the demand increased, the value kept going up. However, when the roads were built the value of the tunnel dropped suddenly for the rest of us, it became zero. However not for William Schmidt. It never came down to zero for him, and it kept more and more growing for him. Comparatively for rest of us the value remained zero for a long time. Until his story was well popularized, due to digital age. And he became a legend like an Achillis, while the value of his tunnel increased. Even Wikipedia says that there is some dispute over the ownership over the tunnel now. Nobody would care unless it is valuable. I am sure, it will be more popular, as even I who is living in the opposite side of the world, to this unknown tunnel is writing about it. More we write, more we talk about it more it will be valuable.
If you would like to know more about the values, I suggest you read my previous article on how values are generated. As this blog is about mindfulness, I would like to point out some salient features about the graph and these mental values in general.
The value of a tunnel is always relative to some consciousness, I have only separated William Schmidt to show that how it is separate from rest of us. However, I am sure, if we graph his wife's point of view, we will get a totally different graph.
The value essentially becomes zero, when consciousness is lost- Death.
The values are variable with time, and circumstances, but generally more people are interested, more value will be generated.
If you are mindful, and you have followed articles about consciousness, and mental objects before, you may ask questions like, what is the value of the tunnel when William Schmidt was sleeping? I think these are more philosophical in nature.
Mountain man of India.
Compare above story to the story of Dashrath Manjhi. He is known as the "Mountain Man of India," undertook an extraordinary feat of determination and perseverance. After his wife passed away due to lack of medical care, Manjhi, a poor laborer from Bihar, spent 22 years (1960–1982) carving a 360-foot-long road through a mountain. Using only hand tools like a hammer and chisel, he reduced the distance between his village, Gelhar, and the nearest town with medical facilities from 70 kilometers to 15 kilometers. As you can imagine his digging effort never lost its value, as the need for a road through the mountain never came down. So, he still is considered as a hero.
Charlie Chaplin Philosophy.
I am just going to show you the comedy of life, just like Charlie Chaplin did. We would like to laugh at William Schmidt and praise Dashrath Manjhi. As one did a futile task and the other did a valuable task according to our yard of Measure. However, look at your own life, make a graph of values that you have mentally created for your objects of affection. And predict what the value would become in the future. And know where the zero of life is. Then you would find the comedy in life that you can laugh at your own self. You may be digging a tunnel, a rabbit hole, sometimes in your office, sometimes in a cooperate company, sometimes in a rural village, sometimes in a computer, like me. Hence, as essentially, we all are doing by so called living is digging a tunnel in mountain of problems our whole lives.
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