Recreation, of course.
Oh, sex is so much more than that. It is an exercise in intimacy. You may not know that from personal experience, but I do.
Taking that as an indication that it is indeed recreational sex that you are enjoying, and as I asked before, can you explain why you do not see this as an inherently risky act that serves absolutely no purpose other than the fleeting enjoyment of a few hormones surging through the brain.
I’m not sure you know what the word “inevitably” means. Inevitability means a 100% surety of becoming re-injured.
I doubt that Yoga is the panacea you think it is. Your statement also runs against your underlying argument, that more physical activity = more damage.
I doubt you’ll answer this statement, but I’ve been playing tennis for about 25 years now (now aged 36). Never had an injury, and I doubt I will any time soon. I know my body, and I know what I need to do to keep it within comfortable limits. I know very few people who have serious chronic injury from tennis. Will someone sprain an ankle from time to time? Yes, but I think there’s a great danger of spraining an ankle in hiking in unfamiliar territory.
Why do I play tennis? I happen to be pretty good at it, and I like to compete. I don’t think you get a whole lot of competition in Yoga or walking.
Why do I enjoy watching football and/or soccer? I love watching fluid, tactical sports, and I’ve played them in the past, so I have a common reference point.
This has to bea whoosh. I can’t think anyone is really this dense.
-Cem
Sorry, I’d missed your previous answer.
So the risk aspect of sex is outweighed by the emotional benefit it offers you?
Why then can the risk aspect of sports not be outweighed by the benefits they offer, such as increased fitness, enjoyable hormonal surges (endorphins, adrenaline) and also the chance to build friendships with your team mates?
Just a suggestion, but you might want to stay away from attempts at witty digs. You don’t do them with any great ability.
I know exactly what “inevitably” means. And it means exactly what I (and you) think it means.
Yoga is beneficial physical activity for the human body. The sports we do in the West are damaging. Why do we do them, and why do we like to watch people doing damage to themselves and to each other?
You will have an injury playing tennis, sooner or later. If you consider a sprained ankle an expendable loss, then go ahead and expend. Any injuries while hiking are utterly avoidable. Injuries in tennis are an inevitability.
You want to compete, be prepared to be injured. That’s the purpose.
You enjoy watching people hurting each other, enjoy away. You enjoy hurting yourself, go ahead. I can see where that would help you relate.
What is a “whoosh.”
That’s okay. It’s nice of you to be sorry.
If you want to release endorphins without much risk of hurting yourself, try yoga. If you want the biological speed ball of endorphins and adrenaline, stick to Western athletics. Your “friendships” with team mates will be built on pain.
The witty dig in question was a bute.
I could as simply advise you to pass on the recreational sex, and instead gain the emotional intimacy through conversation, and the physical relief through masturbation. I could then make a similar “bute” of a dig by stating it was an activity you clearly had personal experience of.
I could do, but of course it would be just as invalid a tactic as it is in your post above.
You state that you take part in a dangerous physical activity, for your own reasons - unless you’re going to claim that no possible physical harm can result from sex.
You go on to give the reasons why you take part in this activity, as if they’re any more intrinsically valid than the reasons why people might enjoy any other physical activity. Please advise just why the intimacy you’ve gained from sex with someone is for some reason less useless than a friendship you might develop with someone who’s been a teammate for some time? Why is your preferred form of physical social interaction better than another?
Where do you hike that you can prevent any possible injury to yourself? You can be careful, and do a lot to avoid injuries, but you do the same thing playing baseball or football. You’ve never stepped on uneven terrain and twisted your ankle?
I’m going to agree with the OP’s rather absurd premise for the moment, and assume (incorrectly) that the playing of any competitive sport results in ‘damage’ of some sort to the human body. People accept this ‘damage’ because, for whatever reason, they find the reward outweighs whatever negatives the ‘damage’ may bring to them. I will grant that a lot of people go into sports at ages where their bodies are resistant to injury and heal quickly, and have not felt the effects of cumulative or repetitive injury. Most people also feel that since they have some control over outcomes, they will somehow be less susceptible to repetitive stress and injury than their peers. Since most people have difficulty projecting into the relatively distant future, this simply is not an issue unless or until such injury reveals itself further down the road. It would seem the OP could have figured this out independently, but whatever.
As to the ‘why’ of watching sports: while I suppose some may watch sports such as football or NASCAR racing purely for the violent aspects, to assert that someone is watching tennis or golf specifically to observe other people damaging themselves is ridiculous on its face. The argument has been made repeatedly by others that they watch organized sports because they enjoy them; they are not enjoying watching damage, they are enjoying watching people play, and I find it bizarre that the OP cannot seem to understand the meaning of this statement.
But what’s so special about sports? Work for monetary reward can damage the human body, and frequently does. I’ve worked for many years in the petroleum industry, specifically in drilling operations, where while accidents are less frequent than they may have been, they still happen all too often. I submit that the average severity of oilfield accidents is in general much worse than the cumulative effects of a career in professional sports. Where is the OPs complaint about the toll in damage to workers?
Persons who play professional sports, are working for a living, like any other person who works. In many cases they are compensated for the supposed damage that occurs to them at rates much greater than ordinary laborers, who suffer just as much or more. I see nothing particularly special about sports injuries in terms of permanent or life-limited damage than one can find in any other activity that requires physical exertion. I likewise see no particular problem with people electing to pursue an activity that may cause them some deferred personal harm if that’s what they want to do.
I don’t get this. Some people do sports like running or tennis all their lives and never have a serious injury. Some people, on the other hand, get serious injuries from activities like hiking or even yoga from which they never fully recover. So how are you defining the difference between “avoidable” and “unavoidable” injury?
Aw rats. The OP done got the (jack) boot. I knew I shouldn’t have bothered.
If you want to take up the discussion, (with more intelligence and fewer snide comments), feel free. If this turns into a genuine discussion, it can stay open. If not, we will probably throw the thread into the sock drawer with the rest of the mismatched socks.
[ /Moderating ]
Well my original question pretty much went unanswered (by anyone, least of which our
dearly departed bridge dweller): would you knowingly zoom to the pinnacle of your sport,
even if you had foreknowledge that it would maim or even kill you? [I guess that belongs
more in IMHO if you must get nitpicky]
It seems to me that people do this all the time. Look at boxers, who spend their lives punching and getting punched. Former NFL running backs usually have huge problems with their knees later in their lives, and there’s no shortage of people competing to fill those 32 available positions. The average life expectancy of retired NFL linemen is around 55 - 22 years below the national average. Somewhere along the line, they have to realize that they’re putting their bodies through more punishment than they can handle.
To answer your question… No, I wouldn’t do that if I knew that I would be seriously injured. But there’s no such thing as an inevitable injury - only varying degrees of risk. I’ve played sports and done things (skiing, mountain climbing or riding a motorcycle, for example) knowing that they entailed a significant degree of risk. Usually, I’ve come out uninjured, but I’ve also had a few mishaps - I tore an ACL playing football in 1999, and I got busted up pretty well in a motorcycle accident in '94. Neither injury would have happened if I’d stayed home and done yoga instead of playing or riding. Still, I enjoyed playing football, and I like to ride my bike. Even after the two injuries, I played a few more seasons of football, and I still ride a motorcycle. The fun of those two activities outweighs the risks of injury. The question you posed is tougher than I want to admit, and I can certainly understand somebody who would answer yes to it.
could check out a list of olympic sports. curling seems pretty safe, but I suppose there’s risk of falling on the ice. how about air powered pistol (or is it rifle shooting?)? that seems pretty safe but i’m not sure what kind of prize money and groupies it might pull in.
Gee, the OP has been banned. Who would’ve thunk it?
But the goal is to play sports. How can you play sports without playing sports? Humans play sports because they’re fun to play. Sports (watching and playing) gives humans pleasure. We play them because we want to play them. These are the benefits, and they outweigh the perceived risks.
Dang. Just noticed the OP was banned shortly after my post. Sorry.
Heh. So they all have risk and the only difference is the degree of risk involved in the sport. I’m sure air powered shooting is fairly safe but, as Ralphie learns every Christmas, “you’ll shoot your eye out”.
Marc
This goes back to a point I was trying to make earlier: that since many of these effects are cumulative, and possibly to some extent hidden from the public (maybe not by design, but still not advertised), they don’t show up on the radar of young persons who intend to play them at the pro or high amateur level. There may be cases where crippled ex-footballers publicly say “kids, maybe you shouldn’t do this; look what happened to me”, but I’m not aware of any. I have heard heard former steroid users make statements to this effect, however.
The stat about NFL lineman was one I didn’t know, is rather shocking, and is one case where the OP might have been on to something. I’d be curious to know what is most responsible for that low life expectancy, however. Is it cardiovascular stress, something related to the high body mass of a typical lineman, diseases induced by, say steroid use, death by misadventure, or what? Any idea?