Every hero who lived,

Whether they were male or female

Young or old

Sick or well

Bold or reserved

Has stood on the backs of mountains.

From politicians to artists

Activists to scientists

Conservationists and mathematicians

Have all stood on the backs of mountains

Looked out on the world

And marveled at how far they’ve come.

And they will leave mountains of their own.

Small ones and big ones

Strong ones and unstable ones

Flashy ones and unseen ones

Mountains to help and mountains to heal

Mountains for others to climb.

But every mountain was built on a mountain

And no one’s mountain is truly their own

Some say that god built the first mountain

Others say there isn’t a first one.

Still others say that mountains themselves are irrelevant

More important is the story of who built them.

But what remains undisputable

A known and true fact

Is that mountains are built by all of us.

By ‘ordinary’ children and grandparents with something to leave and something to share.

And you will build a mountain

And do it by standing on another.