Photo: Elbartoxxxxx
It’s always the same old song: ”When you subject yourself to extreme challenges, you find your own strength and get to know yourself better.” So, you’ve got to climb Mount Everest, swim 18 kilometres under water, or sail around the British Isles in a canoe made from compressed rice paper. If you do that (and especially if you’re the first in the world to do it), you’ll experience an inner explosion of rosy and true happiness. You’ll be intensely connected with your inner self . . .
But, my friends, it’s all a hoax. You won’t gain one additional iota of happiness by pushing a soapbox cart across the Alps or run to St Petersburg and back wearing only a loincloth, or contesting any of the extreme records that haven’t been set yet.
Photo: Eric Lon
You often hear people who do extreme sports tell about how they feel so much more alive the closer they are to death. But from my point of view, they’re already dead inside. If it really is necessary to challenge life in order to notice and appreciate it, your soul is dangerously damaged. I think these people are people who just cannot see the true and basic values in their lives, that is, love for other people. We’re talking about people who throw themselves into self-made crises, hoping to find a purpose hidden in the very struggle to survive.
Photo: Scarleth White
These athletic kamikaze pilots also claim that they’re really struggling to transcend their own limits and barriers. I don’t believe that at all. They just love to be the first to do something extreme. They must constantly exceed and surpass one another. Earlier, it was a glorious achievement to climb Mount Everest; nowadays you need to ride your bike to the northern ends of Sweden first or climb up there without oxygen – and in ten years, you’ll need to go there by pogo stick for it to have any value as self-development (meaning, if anybody is to notice it).
Photo: Kev Purcell
I can’t help thinking of foolhardy mountaineers and extreme skiers and other media heroes of our time as junkies. And like drug addicts, these extreme-junkies are merciless in their hunt for the next fix, their next high. They show no consideration – not for themselves, but especially not for their families and friends.
When extreme athletes talk about contempt for death, it’s a linguistic sham, because it’s really about contempt for the people who care about them. It’s not very sad to die; usually it’s over pretty quickly – and once you’re dead, it’s impossible to feel sadness. What’s bad is to be the ones left behind to deal with the sorrow. That’s why these deadly dangerous deeds are, in my opinion, proof of a highly egotistical mindset, an unbridled focus on yourself and your personal needs, as well as a morbid craving for being noticed, famous or talked about.
Photo: Eric Lon
And it’s actually utterly unnecessary, because the truly extreme experiences are waiting somewhere inside yourself. If you want to try something really challenging, do volunteer work in a refugee camp, or try helping an immigrant gain a foothold on the Danish labour market, or say something nice to a person you detest . . . that’s extreme. And you run no risk of breaking anything – except maybe a bias or two.
By Thomas Uhrskov
Go further: Read here about how meditation and tai-chi make you a better skier and click here to find out about Finland's 5 best ski resorts.
