Free Solo

A friend in Beijing shared a report on "Free Solo," the Oscar
documentary, and added that he sweated through it. This
was about the quest of the climber, Alex Honnold, to ascend
El Captain, unaided. I think I know how most people live in
China; the individual is not worshiped there. The hype from
Beijing might be because that the directors were Chinese
Americans, i.e., from the same stock, and therefore
affirming for the tribe.

On this side of the pond, nonetheless, I was deeply impressed
after watching a few short free videos and could only
imagine what the movie itself would feel in an AMC. Of
course, I could see a boost in the popularity of
mountain/rock/free-climbing in the years to come.

I will pass, however. Even since my 30s, I have started to
regard 見賢思齊 as total BS, and blamed on it many woes
befalling my people and the human race in general.
(Contrast that with the Tao's advice: 不尚賢，使民不爭.)
I have no intention to give up my life here-and-now to go
into the wild and engage giant rocks at a 50% death rate to
experience another type of here-and-now. The life that is
being lived by this human is worth just as much as anyone else's. 

Among the clips I watched, the scene that grabbed me the
most was Alex's finger-pullup drill in his van. Living in a
van has been my fantasy for years. Now there is a great way
to do pullups in it. Should I give up my pullup bar for
something similar? Not yet. Tim can use the bar. Should I
try finger-pullups? Absolutely! I love the next sentence in
our ancient text The Analects, 見不賢則自省*. In that sense,
I think I have learnt something today.

* I first learnt about the silver rule, do not do onto others
what you do not want onto yourself, from Taleb as more
robust than the golden rule which, I guess, was made famous
by the Christian Bible. This inspired the contrast between the
two sentences from The Analects.