A friend just told me she jumped out of an airplane. On purpose. I think she paid handsomely for the privilege. She even plans to do it again.

 

I know a man who is enamored of slacklining, which is an up-and-coming sport where you walk on a tether between two points. The dicey part is that they tend toward choosing spots like mountain peaks hovering above jagged rocks a hundred feet below. His mother told me that her son feels most alive when he is closest to mortal risk. She has been coaxed by said son to climb mountains in January, which if you have not ever had the pleasure to try it are quite slippery when covered in ice. As in you could die.

 

I knew another man, of sound mind, who described his own version of playing Chicken as a teenager. He would go full speed on a boat toward a low bridge... standing up. He had to duck at the last possible second before becoming decapitated. I suppose he was playing Duck, not Chicken.

People seem to have an appetite for finding out if they can survive dangerous circumstances. They challenge themselves to ever more grueling obstacles, involving weather, nature and the limits of the human body. Other people come to cheer and proffer respect to the winners.

 

God knows this innate drive to conquer. He implanted it. But instead of waiting around for us to invent ice climbing and paragliding, He created relationships. These also test the limits of the human spirit to endure cold and isolation, and to magnify both resilience and strength. People who are tethered to spouses and children sometimes find themselves under emotional and physical strain similar to climbing Lion's Head. I have heard tales of marathon suffering, and seen the bulging emotional biceps grow before my eyes.

 

I have enormous respect for them.

 

 

 

 

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