In The Concept of Anxiety, Soren Kierkegaard writes Whoever is educated by anxiety is educated by possibility, and only he who is educated by possibility is educated according to his infinitude. Therefore possibility is the weightiest of all categories….in possibility all things are equally possible, and whoever has truly been brought up by possibility has graspedContinue reading “Kierkegaard On Being Educated By Possibility (And Anxiety)”
Tag Archives: fear
Anxiety, Uncertainty, And Death
Kierkegaard offers us a brief, pithy, definition of anxiety: What is anxiety? It is the next day. This pair of sentences is truly remarkable in capturing a central dimension of anxiety: it is our reaction to the ineluctable uncertainty present in our lives. As human beings, with our lack of divine omniscience, we do notContinue reading “Anxiety, Uncertainty, And Death”
Walking Far Enough To Find Our Way Back To Ourselves
In ‘Running Through Fear,’ an extended excerpt from her memoir Running Home, ultra-marathoner Katie Arnold writes of the aftermath of an assault she suffered while out on the trail: Afterward, in the disorienting fog of sorrow, everything scared me: my babies, so small and vulnerable and precious; my own body, once so strong but nowContinue reading “Walking Far Enough To Find Our Way Back To Ourselves”
The Shames Of Anger
I’ve written before, here on this blog, about the pleasures of anger, of holding on to grudges–the two are, of course, inter-related, for very often it is the pleasure of experiencing anger that allows us to retain a long-held grudge. These ‘pleasures,’ such as they are, have a role to play in the economy ofContinue reading “The Shames Of Anger”
Climbing And The Persistent, If Irrational, Fear Of Falling
A curious experience in roped climbing (whether on auto-belay, top-roped climbing, or following a leader on a multi-pitch route) is the presence of instinctive fears that should have no rational basis for persistence. Like the fear of falling, for instance. There you are, tied in with your faithful figure-eight knot into your climbing harness, whichContinue reading “Climbing And The Persistent, If Irrational, Fear Of Falling”
That Alex Honnold MRI In ‘Free Solo’
One of the most commented on segments of Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarelyhi‘s ‘Free Solo‘–the film that details Alex Honnold‘s incredible free solo climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park–is that of the MRI of Honnold’s brain. This MRI is performed in an attempt to solve the mystery of how Honnold is able toContinue reading “That Alex Honnold MRI In ‘Free Solo’”
Climbing The Grand Teton (And Finding Myself At The Top)
In August 2012, my wife and I went on a road-trip through parts of the American southwest and west: New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota were our most prominent destinations. We camped and hiked in several national parks; I made note of some of those experiences here. Among the national parks we hikedContinue reading “Climbing The Grand Teton (And Finding Myself At The Top)”
Summits As Virtuous Constraint
This past summer, on July 8th, as noted in a post here, I climbed Long’s Peak in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. A minute or so after I stepped on to the summit, grabbed a quick sip of water, and removed my helmet, I shook my guide Rob Smith‘s hand, and thanked him profusely. IContinue reading “Summits As Virtuous Constraint”
Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone: A Climbing Lesson
This past Saturday, after falling, for the proverbially umpteenth time, off a climbing route at The Cliffs in Long Island City, I walked off, wondering yet again, this time loudly enough for gym staff members to hear me, whether it was worse to have never climbed a route in the first place or to keepContinue reading “Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone: A Climbing Lesson”
Resilience In The Face Of ‘Terror’ Is Not Just For New Yorkers
Yesterday morning, an incompetent wanna-be suicide bomber almost blew himself up in an underground passageway connecting New York City’s Port Authority and Times Square subway stations. His crude home-made pipe bomb did little damage; indeed, it failed to even kill the would-be kamikaze; it did, however, cause some understandable, instantaneous panic among the many commutersContinue reading “Resilience In The Face Of ‘Terror’ Is Not Just For New Yorkers”
Samir Chopra 