I'm reading a book called The Will To Climb by Ed Viesturs. As you may know, he is the most successful American mountaineer in modern history, being among other things the first American and one of the few in the world to summit all 14 8,000 meter peaks without the use of supplemental oxygen.
His books are very thoughtful and pragmatic on the topic of climbing. The quote below is quite relevant to our extremism conversation:
"I'm a firm believer in the value of commitment...but I'm leery of commitment's close cousin, obsession."
He goes on to discuss the potential of a dichotomy between commitment and obsession or whether commitment is good while obsession is bad. As he says "The whole business is more complex and subtler than that."
So am I committed or obsessed with my pursuits? Rather than discuss that, what about others? Is someone who works 12 hour days 6 days a week committed or obsessed? What about the "extreme" churchgoer, devouring services, small groups, and seminars? Doesn't the same spectrum exist in nearly every human pursuit?
And now we're full circle back to Marc's post on extremism...
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