The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.
~Ernest Hemingway
The Oxford dictionary defines in·cor·ri·gi·ble as;
adjective
(of a person or their tendencies) not able to be corrected, improved, or reformed.
They are what I term “lifers”, people that are incorrigible. What you see is what you get. They don’t put on airs, they don’t try to be someone they ain’t. I love these types. I lost one recently and will write at length about “Bobby” as I called him.
I say this after watching 2 documentaries about two of these irreformable, irredeemable types. One a sailor, one a mountaineer.
I’ve added them to the playlist I created for readers - full of so many of the best, free docs, you’ll ever watch. Might be good for over the summer. So posting to share.
Incorrigibles inevitably die standing, wearing what they always wear, doing what they always do. One might say they are obsessive but I wouldn’t call them so. Stubborn, straight and narrow is more to the point. Adrift, removed from the regular swell and current of daily life, they dare to go it alone.
I’m sure you’ve all come across these types in life and can relate to them. Society often tries to fix them in one way or another. Families intervene or finally give up on them. They are labeled eccentrics and often “loners” or “weirdos”. But they are anything but. They are just individuals who know what they like, whose radar is stuck and there ain’t nothing wrong about that. They also are comfortable with themselves. That’s as fine a trait as you can come by.
“The idealist is incorrigible: if he is thrown out of his heaven, he makes an ideal out of his hell.” - Fredrich Nietsche.
Incorrigibles are eternal optimists, existing and etching out a life on their own terms, their own values and for the sake of their own meaning. Brave, very brave souls. But quiet about it. They go about fighting their windmills in a private way, tragically patient about it.
Watch and enjoy if you have the time. One, about a man, his boat and his last days, much like his first. The other about a man who after 8 attempts, finally got to the top of Everest, only to perish there. Both of these incorrigibles, dying in the saddle.
May we all be so lucky, to die comfortable with who we are and doing, being what we wanted and believed to be the best, the true.