Aron Ralston pitting against the wilderness

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705296046/Ralston-says-accident-was-a-blessing-in-a-way.html?pg=3

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/sports/othersports/01ralston.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

This is the extended story with video. This NY Times article appeared on audible and caught my interest in a climber who set a goal alone in the lap of the wilderness ,oblivious to its dangers.He knew not the dangers of the wilderness and was in danger several times. His was an act of self-preservation for a happening that never should have occurred , and his survival has been hailed over this nation ass a tribute to courage and love. How foolishness and bravado can be so easily put in a secular vein and the causes of the initial folly be lost sight of so easily indicates possibly the perverted values of so many at this time. To make a commercial circus event out of this mishap in contesting his own grit against nature is so like the scenarios happening in the world and especially the US today. To redefine this event as sacrifice really perverts the meaning of hubris in setting out to pit himself against "earth" in the first place.How this conclusion could have been drawn is really an inversion of the meaning of the incident . Here are some further rough notes from the article that I have made.

Meaning of risk for fulfillment by self and not telling anyone
documented using digital camera
wilderness gave “me” a gift
adventure and wholeness questions of identity false and beguiling set of personal norms of man confronting the wilderness –they are secular norms of what once were spiritual values of being “tested in the wilderness, not setting goals to overcome it. Native Americans held a different spiritual view of blending with mother earth and being in oneness with it. Act of pride in putting oneself in opposition to nature for the sake of ego.

On April 26, 2003, without telling anyone his plans, Aron Lee Ralston set
out alone through Robbers Roost, a steep, treacherous, largely abandoned parcel
of southeastern Utah backcountry last bent to human will by Butch Cassidy and
the Wild Bunch, who had found its forbidding terrain favorable to hiding from
the law.

Five days later, after several unsuccessful attempts to dislodge an 800-pound boulder that was crushing his right hand, Ralston snapped first the radius and then the ulna of his forearm near the wrist, applied a makeshift tourniquet, sawed through the cartilage with a throwaway multitool, rappelled to the base of Blue John Canyon and hiked until he came upon a rescue helicopter.

To some, Ralston's story was an inspiration. His 368-page account, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place," rose to No. 3 on the New York Times best-seller list. Corporations paid him $15,000 to $37,000 for motivational speeches. Wilderness conservation groups deployed him to raise donations. Schools invited him to speak to children, who often asked to examine his prosthetic hand. Travelers recognized him at airports. Strangers sent him letters. A film version is in the works.
To others, though, his story was the cautionary tale of a heedless fool. By Ralston's own written account, he had nearly drowned, disturbed a bear and stumbled into an avalanche on earlier adventures. Failure to leave word of his whereabouts in Utah, ignoring one of the most basic rules of hiking, drew sharp rebukes.
To some, Ralston's story was an inspiration. His 368-page account, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place," rose to No. 3 on the New York Times best-seller list. Corporations paid him $15,000 to $37,000 for motivational speeches. Wilderness conservation groups deployed him to raise donations. Schools invited him to speak to children, who often asked to examine his prosthetic hand. Travelers recognized him at airports. Strangers sent him letters. A film version is in the works.
To others, though, his story was the cautionary tale of a heedless fool. By Ralston's own written account, he had nearly drowned, disturbed a bear and stumbled into an avalanche on earlier adventures. Failure to leave word of his whereabouts in Utah, ignoring one of the most basic rules of hiking, drew sharp rebukes.
"Aron Ralston has a death wish," one book reviewer concluded.

So went the early appearances for a public speaker whose presentation, as described in promotional materials from his handlers at the Harry Walker Agency, "redefines the understanding of sacrifice, goal-attaining and what is truly important in our lives."