Stretching the limits of human ability
My hobbies include watching documentaries about people stretching the limits of human ability... while sitting on my settee eating pizza.
Last weekend I watched No Going Back - a documentary series about the Clipper Round the World yacht race and it was so lovely. People are so nice.
I'll watch pretty much anything about mountaineering. Normally I'm against watching stuff with such a high mortality rate 'for fun'. It feels unseemly. But people going up these mountains absolutely know what they are walking into.
One of my favourite films - not just documentaries but films - is Supervention, which is about freeskiers and it's just so beautiful.
I'm not going to to be doing any of these things and that's just fine by me. I do not recognise this impulse.
During lockdown I wrote a story about someone who was into extreme sports, and less extreme ones, sports generally (all sports seem pretty extreme and unfathomable to me). I think the story was prompted by not being able to go swimming in lockdown.
Which helped me to understand this impulse, even though I do not have it. We all take risks all the time. I drive - and regularly on some of this country's most dangerous roads. Just basejump off a mountain why don't you.
The limits don't have to be dangerous but they are by definition extreme. And I'm absolutely fine where I am, on the settee with pizza.