The Easiest Thing to Do Is to Die

This is not another *whine, whine, whine* suicidal post. Au contraire: it is supposed to challenge me to reframe my way of thinking. 

Recently, I made a rather extreme side-quest plan with my friend. The plan is to go on an 8-day hike around Mont Blanc: up to 27 km and 2000 m of evelvation gain in a day. Two Czechs died there last year. Most people lose about 8 kg of body weight during their "holiday". It's a mental torture. We'll be sleeping in some illegal places, risking a hefty fine, and there's a chance it could rain for a couple of days. To make sure we're serious, mentally and physically prepared, the organiser asked us a few questions about our physical activity, hiking history, etc.

While he was reading our answers - mine were short and to the point, the friend's longer and full of descriptions of her previous hikes in Georgia and scouting - I was talking to the friend about the plan. We realised that the easiest scenario was for the Czech to decide that we weren't ready. Better luck next time. I'm sure it would be a great disappointment, but it would also come as a great relief to me if we got a negative answer.

But again, we're talking about the easiest scenario. Another easy thing you can do with your life is just go to work, go home and go to sleep. If we look at it that way, there's no point in having important people in your life because it's easier to be alone and not go out. It's certainly easier than having conflicts and arguments. It's also easier not to have pets and hobbies because they're so much work.

In this case, the easiest thing to do is to die.

So why do we do it? Why do we keep going, keep getting ourselves into difficult situations, when we could just float through life without really doing anything? Why do we keep on living when - again - the easiest thing to do is to die?

Anyway, the Czech guide decided that we'd be good for the trip. Oh, he couldn't have been more wrong (I can hardly tell which side is left and which is right). But here we go: after a few months of lying to my family that we're just doing a little hiking in Switzerland, nothing too dangerous (they think sleeping in tents is extreme enough), we're flying from Prague to Geneva to see if we can survive.