The edginess of life
So Tommy Lee Jones just visited me on a cliff face over a beach to discuss the nature of adventure. All around me people were engaged in sports of various kinds - snorkling, rock climbing, and just generally doing things that struck me as somewhat adventuresome. What I was doing on the rock face I'm not sure, as I was still in my bikini and didn't realize that I had climbed so high from where I had started. I can't remember the majority of the conversation, it was a dream, after all, but I do mostly remember what I said at the end. "It's the difference between the satisfaction you get doing something that challenges you, something that is somehow outside of your normal life, and doing something that entirely meets your expectations, and you are therefore satisfied." I realize, now, of course, that this doesn't make that much sense. What I meant was the difference between something that challenges you ( I got the first part right) and the satisfaction one gets when doing something that has been standardized, branded, franchized, marketized because you get exactly what you were expecting. So really this is a meditation on why people like to go to a place like McDonald's, where everything is always the same whether you're in Texas or Saskatchewan, and are satisfied. The food is awful, but it's familiar. I guess I'm also asking a question about why people *aren't* satisfied when something is different. Why my father doesn't enjoy his steak at a fancy restaurant because it doesn't look like the steak he's used to, even though it's a better cut, the wine is better and the chairs are cushier than he gets at the Keg. Maybe there's a tie-in here with extreme soprts - these are the people that do seek out something different, something out of the ordinary - but then many of these people also seem to have the need to push further all the time, to go further in order to get the rush, which, I suppose, is the point of extreme sports. Maybe DisneyLand is a better example to illustrate my point, such as it is at this stage. If you go kite-surfing, you're pushing your limits, you're creating a rush that has to do with endurance, with the edginess of life. If you go to Disney Land you're buying a pre-packaged experience, one that will undoubtedly meet your expectations but that will never ask you to do anything other than minimal participation. Is it a participation thing? Is it an involvement thing? It seems to me that rock climbing teaches you something about yourself, but that a trip to DsineyLand may not. But then again it might.
So Tommy Lee Jones just visited me on a cliff face over a beach to discuss the nature of adventure. All around me people were engaged in sports of various kinds - snorkling, rock climbing, and just generally doing things that struck me as somewhat adventuresome. What I was doing on the rock face I'm not sure, as I was still in my bikini and didn't realize that I had climbed so high from where I had started. I can't remember the majority of the conversation, it was a dream, after all, but I do mostly remember what I said at the end. "It's the difference between the satisfaction you get doing something that challenges you, something that is somehow outside of your normal life, and doing something that entirely meets your expectations, and you are therefore satisfied." I realize, now, of course, that this doesn't make that much sense. What I meant was the difference between something that challenges you ( I got the first part right) and the satisfaction one gets when doing something that has been standardized, branded, franchized, marketized because you get exactly what you were expecting. So really this is a meditation on why people like to go to a place like McDonald's, where everything is always the same whether you're in Texas or Saskatchewan, and are satisfied. The food is awful, but it's familiar. I guess I'm also asking a question about why people *aren't* satisfied when something is different. Why my father doesn't enjoy his steak at a fancy restaurant because it doesn't look like the steak he's used to, even though it's a better cut, the wine is better and the chairs are cushier than he gets at the Keg. Maybe there's a tie-in here with extreme soprts - these are the people that do seek out something different, something out of the ordinary - but then many of these people also seem to have the need to push further all the time, to go further in order to get the rush, which, I suppose, is the point of extreme sports. Maybe DisneyLand is a better example to illustrate my point, such as it is at this stage. If you go kite-surfing, you're pushing your limits, you're creating a rush that has to do with endurance, with the edginess of life. If you go to Disney Land you're buying a pre-packaged experience, one that will undoubtedly meet your expectations but that will never ask you to do anything other than minimal participation. Is it a participation thing? Is it an involvement thing? It seems to me that rock climbing teaches you something about yourself, but that a trip to DsineyLand may not. But then again it might.