Miles to Go (30 page)

Korczak’s dream was an impossible one—that one man could sculpt a mountain. I can only imagine the barbs and insults of Korczak’s critics, and he had galleries of them. “You’re crazy, a fool, you’ll never do it,” they sang from their low places and half-dug graves. “The statue will never be complete.”

But Korczak knew better than to listen to the ghosts in the cemeteries. Every day he climbed his mountain, and with a chisel here, a blast there, he moved tons of stone as his dream emerged from the mountain.

Korczak knew he’d never live to see his work finished, but this was no reason to stop. As he lay dying, he was asked if he was disappointed to not see the monument completed. “No,” he said, “you only have to live long enough to inspire others to do great things.”

And this he did. As the mountain took form, the masses began to dream too. And they began to move. Today millions come from around the world to see Korczak’s mountain, and a professional crew works year-round to move the dream forward. It is no longer a question of
if
the statue will be completed, only when.

But Korczak’s greatest legacy is not a public one, the massive stone mountain that he conquered, but the mountain he first conquered in himself—a mountain that he climbed alone—and in this we can all empathize. For there are moments in all lives, great and small, that we must trudge alone our forlorn roads into infinite wilderness,
to endure our midnight hours of pain and sorrow—the Gethsemane moments, when we are on our knees or backs, crying out to a universe that seems to have abandoned us.

These are the greatest of moments, where we show our souls. These are our “finest hours.” That these moments are given to us is neither accidental nor cruel. Without great mountains we cannot reach great heights. And we were born to reach great heights.

Every one of us is faced with a task equal to Korczak’s, one as gorgeously absurd—to chip away at the stone of our own spirits, creating a monument to light the universe. And, like Korczak’s monument, our task will not be completed in our lifetime. And in the end we will find that we were never sculpting alone.

Korczak said, “I tell my children never forget that man is not a complete being in himself. There’s something greater than he that moves him.”

I don’t honestly know if I’ll ever reach Key West, but I do know that I will never give up. And, when I take my final step, whether or not I made my destination doesn’t really matter, because in the end I will be a different man than the one who left Seattle. I was never carving a mountain. I was carving myself.

D
ear Reader,

As you likely know by now, I write with the hope of improving the world. In
Miles to Go
, I included the character of Kailamai to highlight the important issue of foster youth aging out of care. The Kailamai in my story is partially based on a real young woman. And, like the Kailamai in my story, she’s full of hope and gratitude. My daughter Jenna has helped Kailamai write her incredible story. To download her true story go to
www.richardpaulevans.com
and click the Kailamai link. All of the donations for this story will go to help this young woman reach her dreams.

I want my readers to know that the challenges of youth aging out of foster care are very real: Research from the Pew Charitable Trusts shows that 6 out of 10 youth aging out of the foster care system will be homeless, incarcerated, or dead within the first two years. Most youth aging out of the foster care system lack the essential skills, resources, and support to live a safe and independent life.

GO-Mentor is a collaboration committed to creating programs and offering services that effectively improve such outcomes. GO-Mentor includes the Youth Mentor Project, the School of Life Foundation, and the National Crime Prevention Council, home of McGruff the Crime Dog
^®
.

To contribute financially to the exciting GO-Mentor initiative, please visit
www.ncpc.org
or write the National
Crime Prevention Council, 2001 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 901, Arlington, VA 22202. To learn more about GO-Mentor or to volunteer, please visit
www.go-mentor.org
. Thank you for your help in building brighter futures for youth aging out of foster care.

R
ichard Paul Evans is the author of the number-one bestselling novel
The Christmas Box
. Each of his novels has appeared on the
New York Times
bestseller list; there are more than 14 million copies of his books in print. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and several have been international bestsellers. He has won two first-place
Storytelling World
awards for his children’s books and the
Romantic Times
Best Women’s Novel Award. Evans received the
Washington Times
Humanitarian of the Century Award and the Volunteers of America National Empathy Award for his work helping abused children. Evans lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Keri, and their five children.