I originally thought that I would talk about rock climbing and would talk about conventional topics such as "persistence" and "limit". I didn't expect that what free solo wanted to do was to treat rock climbing as a small incision to spy on a person. life. Even at this time, push the limit and endurance are no longer the protagonists of the story, but the methodology that exists to achieve a set of logic. And climbing the 900-meter-long Emirates Rock with bare hands is not a goal. What is not good to say, it may be just a little effort to find the answer to life.
Alex takes rock climbing as a career, holding the equivalent of an American dentist's income, and will use one-third of his income for charity, and he only eats vegetables and lives in a small truck. He is doing pull-ups on the door frame of the truck, like a meditation scene.
Being trapped in the city for too long, I often forget that there are still people in the world living in different ways, not in books, not in movies, not in ancient times, nor in the very distant future, but now and now. Your contemporaries who breathe have countless unimaginable ways of life. These methods may seem to break the default rules of society, but they have their own logic-I know this very well, but I often forget.
Rock climbing is Alex's way of life. He lives in a truck and runs around. He has a very low material desire and an amygdala that is very inactive. This is his life. He has a father who is as silent as a big teddy bear in his impression, and a mother who sometimes laughs at him. During the long years of his childhood, he was smart and lonely, so that after falling in love with rock climbing, he began to do solo rock climbing. , Also because I don’t love talking to people and don’t want to talk to people. He is a young man with bright eyes and a little frustration in his life, but no big ups and downs in his life. He talked about everything in a faint way. When his mother faced the camera and talked about the impact his father’s silence might have on the children’s childhood, then the camera cut to Alex. He said that when he remembered his father only thought he was one. A chubby bear. A very cute young man who is isolated from the indifferent and anti-contemporary social system.
His lifestyle has its own logic. Although I can't do it, I understand it very well and even a little envious. In my opinion, the most important thing in a person’s life is to understand the meaning he is pursuing, and to be able to feel joy and self-identity because of “doing this thing” on the way of pursuing, compared with this The enjoyment and recognition along the way, even the importance of the final achievement is even slightly inferior.
The story started very simple. A camera team composed of a group of rock climbing enthusiasts wanted to record the story of their friend Alex starting with the idea of climbing the Emirates Rock with his bare hands and ending with a death declaration of failure. They went to photograph the minivan in which he lived, followed him to lectures, visited his family and friends, and used the camera to record the daily life of him and his girlfriend. The free solo climb to the top of the Emirates Rock is mixed in the above matters, and it seems like a daily event.
The bondage between family and lover is actually very tricky for rock climbers, but what I have seen from free solo records is that the love between mother and girlfriend completes the story. His mother said to the camera that although she didn't understand this matter, she would never stop him, because this is the meaning of his existence. If you love someone, you won't let him give up what he sees as meaning. While his girlfriend drove away early in the morning when he was about to climb the Emirates Rock with his bare hands, he stopped the car halfway through the road and cried.
But no one said in this story: You shouldn't do this.
What is love? Of course, love is the meaning you may not agree with, but because you know that it has meaning to him, you will support him even if you are sad and risky. It is deep, tacky, ordinary love that makes greatness and history. So in the end, Alex, who was not good at expressing himself, also said "I love you" to his girlfriend for the first time.
Some people will say that Alex is a selfish person. I think those who say these things easily, probably have no love in their lives. Of course, this world has more ordinary days, more meaningless, but therefore it is too narrow to deny others. It is true that many, many people in this world may not find the meaning of their existence in their entire lives-it does not necessarily have to be unarmed rock climbing, cave exploration, writing novels that have been passed down through the ages, and studying the dark matter of the universe. The meaning of "makes family happy" in many cases does not even have the small meaning. I feel that life is nothing but meaning and love, meaning is an inward exploration of oneself, and love is the relationship between oneself and the people around you. There are many other things in the world that are important, but none of them are so precious.
Coincidentally, after watching the movie, I went home and watched the last two episodes of the final season of the big bang theory at home. Sheldon finally won the Nobel Prize, but he also understands that his achievements may never be realized without the support of his family and friends around him. Sheldon's story is false, but Alex's story is true. No matter which story it is, what I tell at the end is such a simple thing.
Alex is also surprisingly a simple person. He doesn't think very deeply, and he has few other hobbies, not even the so-called "adventurous spirit." Such caution and professionalism have added some strange romance to this thrilling and nervous free solo.
I think I will probably never understand the meaning of climbing the Emirates Rock with bare hands, but Alex understands. At the end of the documentary, seeing Alex successfully climbed to the top, I was crying in the last row of the cinema alone.
I don't even know if my tears are because I feel the same joy and shock, or because he is too jealous that he can be enthusiastic because of the meaning that he is betting on his life and wanting to persist.
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