settingthehookPete
Contributor
Having considered this question for many years, try this cut an paste:
"Why do adventurers climb great mountains or diveto dangerousdepths? The various answers seem toinevitably evolve into platitudes,even the most famous and thoughtprovoking response of “Becauseit’s there.” Everest climber GeorgeMallory’s elegantly simple acceptanceof the inexplicable nature of the answeris not satisfying, nor do I expectthat it was meant to be. Why dive the Andrea Doria; why bother? Yearsback, a simple answer for me would havebeen “To get china,” as if themuddy dishes possessed some sort ofintrinsic spiritual value. All thosebasement artifacts were interestingtrophies to be certain, and a wreck’shistory was written in these brass,glass, and ceramic conversation starters.Doria china was also tangibleproof that at a specific point in a person’slife they were skilled divers witheither sufficient nerve or stupidity to gointo the Dish Hole and come back alive,but being able to identify whichof these two choices was the correctcharacterization was not particularlyclear cut either. Then there is the “purpose”explanation, the proposal thatin modern times it is less of achallenge to simply survive in western society,and new challenges are needed to lend aperson a sense of unique identity,of being special and belonging to anexclusive club. So was that reallyit, did the motivations for extremesports simply come down to braggingrights and rebellion against anindifferent society’s glacially certain movementtowarduniversal anonymity? Uncomfortably, I would have to answer“Yes.” But nothing is that simple, andthere is still a missing element tothis passion that defies definition,maybe because it is such an integral partof one’s being that it can’t bepinpointed. Oh, the hell with it: “Because it’sthere.”
Page 209 Setting the Hook
Peter Hunt
"Why do adventurers climb great mountains or diveto dangerousdepths? The various answers seem toinevitably evolve into platitudes,even the most famous and thoughtprovoking response of “Becauseit’s there.” Everest climber GeorgeMallory’s elegantly simple acceptanceof the inexplicable nature of the answeris not satisfying, nor do I expectthat it was meant to be. Why dive the Andrea Doria; why bother? Yearsback, a simple answer for me would havebeen “To get china,” as if themuddy dishes possessed some sort ofintrinsic spiritual value. All thosebasement artifacts were interestingtrophies to be certain, and a wreck’shistory was written in these brass,glass, and ceramic conversation starters.Doria china was also tangibleproof that at a specific point in a person’slife they were skilled divers witheither sufficient nerve or stupidity to gointo the Dish Hole and come back alive,but being able to identify whichof these two choices was the correctcharacterization was not particularlyclear cut either. Then there is the “purpose”explanation, the proposal thatin modern times it is less of achallenge to simply survive in western society,and new challenges are needed to lend aperson a sense of unique identity,of being special and belonging to anexclusive club. So was that reallyit, did the motivations for extremesports simply come down to braggingrights and rebellion against anindifferent society’s glacially certain movementtowarduniversal anonymity? Uncomfortably, I would have to answer“Yes.” But nothing is that simple, andthere is still a missing element tothis passion that defies definition,maybe because it is such an integral partof one’s being that it can’t bepinpointed. Oh, the hell with it: “Because it’sthere.”
Page 209 Setting the Hook
Peter Hunt
