(no subject)
I suppose I should mention this as I'd all but forgotten it, and I thought it was a nice sort of private moment that I'd like to keep in mind - one day about 2 weeks ago I was at the gym when a guy in my aerobics class who was in some kind of conflict for space just stopped in the middle of class and cried. I was kind of across the room, and kept looking and thinking should I, and then when he just kept crying and no one near him seemed interested I ran over to him and helped him off to the side and talked to him a bit, eventually getting his bag, leaving with him and talking to him in the cafe across the street for a couple of hours. I only found out about the space conflict later, he just told me how down he was about life; in respect I won't put that stuff here. I gave him a couple resources and we just had a nice talk, and he thanked me and gave me a lift home. It's certainly possible that I just helped a drama queen as some of my classmates brought me to musing about (he really was crying, though, and had a lot to say about his trajectory), but I'll never know and really, that's fine if so. Without being fully informed, I think it was right to err on the side of kindness. Just reminding myself that it's not like I have much to lose anymore, and I can choose to do it even sooner, becoming the world I want to see out there myself, when I can and am not putting myself in danger.
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Speaking of danger, saw Everest on Friday in 3D IMAX. I'd always been a bit chilled and intrigued by the stories of Everest corpses (that people keep posting over and over :P) so I suggested it for our noise-avoiding sojourn, and it rather took my breath away!
It honestly frightened me more than a horror movie would, because of my whole empathy thing; I kept imagining my fingers freezing off and my lungs struggling to filter depleted oxygen, and the heavy tiredness one would have to feel to let go of one's life so simply. I enjoyed this movie immensely; it looked incredibly beautiful - can't imagine how they achieved some of those shots - and felt quite human, making a real life tragedy come alive without too much melodrama (a surfeit of swelling scores, shouted epiphanies and hanging-by-one-finger narrow escapes are an old fashioned trope that I feel would have taken me out of things - most likely the horrors experienced here were indeed rather abrupt, quiet and dreamlike). Only thing that struck me as weird was how gentle everyone was about trying to talk people out of dying. Neither of us have any inclination to make this climb, but if I were sat-phoning R on the peak I'd be all "If you don't get up off that mountain right now I'm climbing it myself and kicking your noseless ass all the way down!" :P
I saw the film criticized for several things that I didn't agree with. I liked that the big name actors didn't really grab the spotlight, I liked that sometimes you couldn't see or hear all that much (found that more immersive, as in Interstellar), and I liked that the film didn't get bogged down in the existential musings of 'why conquer this mountain'. They touched on this a bit, but very superficially, which I honestly think a pretty good reflection of real life...they don't know. They don't really have a good reason. It's not the most difficult climb, though there is a real risk, it's not the most rare and beautiful view, and no ground is being broken - by now scores of people have already done it and it's a crowded junkyard up there with huge lines. It's a dance with the ego, a silly jaunt for those with too much time and money - or so one on the outside would surmise. These people's motives were their own, and not necessarily important; I don't think they need to be romanticized here. They're real people, the ones who died, and perhaps their lives weren't amazingly complicated or heroic. It's still tragic, and I think that helps keep it real.
This weekend was eventful too, but this is starting to get long, so I'm taking a break ^^