"Gay" gesundheit (an old Yiddish expression), not heard frequently in the mountains or on the trails.

A long time ago, I learned about intelligence and morals/values. Their pairing are confusing to some but should not be as they are completely independent of each other. Extremely briefly, intelligence is something one is born with and thereafter, may build upon. Morals/values are neutral. A person must make a choice, struggle may be a better expression, to adopt and develop good and superior behavior. To be decent is difficult, hence, it’s a choice.  

  While I do not profess to be decent or intelligent, I do believe I understand the concepts well enough to recognize such attributes in people. Where is this leading? I thought of a practical example explaining the concepts, even providing a pictorial illustration. I’ll make one other point before introducing the pictures. I believe we inhabit a beautiful world whose human inhabitants, in general, have forgotten that without a code of values, preferably imposed from outside, darkness will continue to descend upon Earth. Peoples’ feelings and opinions are irrelevant when stacked against a universal system of morals/values.

 Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon, Arizona.
Capitol Reefs Park, Utah. I didn't notice the leaning slab before springing. Pretty smart guy! 

  The two pictures above illustrate, for some, fairly treacherous positions. I think a decent person might warn against undertaking the challenge and be concerned for the safety of the 'performer'. 

A well-educated, or intelligent person or even a person who believes he/she is intelligent (lot of those), would look at this more deeply. Such a person would try to understand the context of the performance. (Of course, intelligent people can be decent and decent people too can be intelligent and many are. Conversely, decent people can be mentally slow while many intelligent people are indecent.) This was the issue about choice mentioned earlier. In dealing with the concept of context, clearly the decent person, intelligent or slow, looks at the performer and shows care and concern.  

  Following on from the angle of context, the seemingly educated person without a value system might harp on context. That same person might say once we determine the context of the act, we can then decide what action to implement. What is the history of the person? Does the person require counselling for acting this way? There are a whole lot of factors to examine further.

   In the end, such 'intellectual' would probably order that assistance be rendered to the performer who might be seriously injured or even die. So, what was all the talk about context? 

  The decision might well be very different should the performer be a Jew, obviously an inferior person, an Untermensch.  

 "Gay" gesundheit.

Cheers,

Jenni and Jeffrey