Had an interesting discussion with a chap yesterday and the point he was trying to convey and defend was that we as humans are risk takers by nature, some more than others, and that life acn only fully be lived by exposing oneself to either psychological or physical challenges or risks. I don't regard me as particularly brave or possessing an iron will and made counterpoints arguing that most follow the grain and a content with it - with at least minority also occasionally finding real happiness from time to time.
So I thought I'd try to get some info from others with other interests and backgrounds than myself as people in the sydiving world tend to be somewhat biased on this issue. Basically the question would be 'what makes life worth living?' or 'what do you have that you are passionate about that enriches your life greatly and gives you happiness?', keeping in mind that happiness is a fleeing thing that one cannot hold on forever but something to cherish when it's there.
It's now summer and to me, right now, life is good
. Saw a world class formation skydiving team (Sebastian Danez, based in San Sebastian, USA), have gotten a tan from being out in the open a lot and been doing some great free fly skydives, some from this baby:
or rather, one of her sisters. Takes 18 but is pretty slow to altitude, has a tendency to break down and needs refuelling often (heh, one engine stopped once coz the left tank was empty and three teams had to make an unscheduled departure 100 metres before reaching exit altitude).
Last skydive I geared up; 17 others in the plane. Two tandems in the plane and the usual banter (like one of the instructors saying to his tandem guy 'Relax - if you **** up, you die'. Free flyers exiting the plane in odd ways giving faces to the camera mounted on one of the tandem pilots helmet. My turn; give two tumbs up and a tongue out to the camera and hurl myself sideways outta the door and accidentally hit it with my foot. Then I start free flying which is new to me, mostly done standard things. Manage to get into and hold a sit-fly, only to find my jacket up around my face and the zipper beating on my goggles. Being an idiot I get up into a stand-fly to fix it, making it worse. Smile all the way. Way different from a previous dive where I kept wondering if I had remembered to activate the CyPRES and therefore was cautious, conservative and worried. Anyway I lose altitude like mad at 320 km/h and get into box position to pull at 1000m, hang in chute at 700. Make a landing in hard gusty winds but manage to remain standing. Sister who exited just before me and saw the whole thing gives me a tumbs up and I give two raised fists in return.
Life, I think, doesn't get much better than this. Man, that felt good and still does. Will live off this experience for a couple of days (no more cash == no more skydives :/)
In August there's a boogie where there's a TurboLet, which'll take 10-15 minutes to 4km.
This stuff is what makes life worth living to me. The average day is just about existing and doing duties, work or other mundane things and constantly being assaulted by beauty and life style ideals by the media and indirectly by the people adhering or trying to adhere to 'em.
Most have some thing they are very passionate about that is the essence of life - what is yours? Is it unrelated to some kind of risk or not? Does it melt away all the pressure and expectations from society? If you say 'bickering in the O' Club forum' you'll at least make me smile
