“I ran deep into the Rocky Mountains while on 24-hour fasts, used exhaustion (as well as some mind-altering drugs) to loosen the grip of reality."

"I put myself in front of the most gorgeous places on earth. I climbed frozen waterfalls and remote desert towers. I ran at night, during hurricanes, and bobbed face up, in the middle of lakes, in the middle of the night, in my birthday suit. I was searching and searching — for what, I did not know — and in the process I was failing and failing, powerless to pry the lid and taste nature’s mysterium tremendum."

Wrote Francis Sanzaro, a year ago, in "The Next Walk You Take Could Change Your Life" (NYT).

I'm reading that today because it was a suggested link at the bottom of a new op-ed, also by Francis Sanzaro, "When I Stopped Trying to Self-Optimize, I Got Better." That newer piece quotes Antoine de Saint-Exupéry — in his book "Wind, Sand and Stars" — "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness."