Those Challenges

Base jumping, paragliding, desert racing
what are we running from, and what
toward? Are we inchoate with the agony
of boredom? Is life such a tedious mess
promising nothing that we gamble it all
for the soaring sensation of transcending
all that is natural, seeking out challenges
promising an incomparable atmospheric
lift and the frisson of awareness that if
one tiny thing goes awry, it will be the final
sensation, and then the mystery if not of
life but of death will be fully revealed at a
time when we are not exactly prepared to
revel in the awe surrounding it, since no
one is truly prepared to surrender life to
that vast, dark abyss. The question is
simple and reasonable enough: why? What
the goal that compels so many to champion
their way to that crooked fork in the road
auguring transitory pleasure or, in vast
contrast, permanent loss. Oblivion holds
no promise for anyone, its contemplation
looms like a vast desolation, a death wish.
The flippant retort that it is better by far
to live briefly and die magnificently has
not yet been put to the test; those who have
died have not communicated their ultimate
satisfaction to all awaiting the opportunity.