There was one more speaker on the program after Gene Sparling: a trustee from one of the event's sponsors.
"She had a different story to tell: that we need hopeful tales like Gene's so we can get through all the tragedies that life brings us," says a colleague who was there. "And then she detailed a long list of such troubles. My mind filled with painful images. I felt sick to my stomach."
"People clapped at the end," my colleague continues, "but from what I could see, the energy of the standing ovation was gone. It sure was for me."
It's natural, and can be useful, to interpret a euphoric experience by putting it into the context of everyday life, as this speaker did. But so often we treat the high point as if it were the exception. We see our highs as fleeting moments, not to be trusted.
We let gravity pull us down from the mountaintop to the apparent safety of base camp.