For many years, a mountain rescuer and parachutist with more than 1,200 jumps to his name, in December 2014 he rose into the stratosphere in a hot-air balloon together with two other jumpers and made the highest parachute jump in Europe. After the event, he did not sleep for four nights. At the meeting, he said that his book “The Story of a Thousand Fears” was a form of therapy, a way of making a gentle landing after the jump.
Kozłowski’s book is about fears, but the stories of the jumps he described were accounts of natural human fear, which he broke through and denied in order to set records. He broke an unofficial world record and three official European records in a parachute formation jump from a hot-air balloon.
The question is whether overcoming the fear of death translates into courage in everyday life. A mountain rescuer may thereby strengthen his skills and help people in danger more effectively when his self-preservation instinct is dulled. But does this help others overcome ordinary fear?
Much of the meeting focused on men proving themselves, getting to know themselves in extreme situations, and understanding the superiority of achieving a goal over helping a group member. During one expedition, Tomasz Kozłowski was left by his team at an altitude of 4,000 metres in the mountains while suffering from altitude sickness. The author of “The Story of a Thousand Fears” spoke with great respect about his friends, their achievements, steadfastness and downright psychopathic lack of fear. He understood why they had left him behind—he was hindering them from achieving their intended goal. He explained that it was a serious men’s expedition, not a stroll in the mountains, and no one had promised to hold his hand.
Tomasz Kozłowski also spoke about the experience of being here and now while falling from an altitude of 11 kilometres. His story, told over 260 pages in lively, witty language, with reliable technical descriptions of the jumps, preparations for them and the experiences they brought, is certainly worth reading. It is worth asking yourself what purpose it serves—and finding your own, unconventional answer.
Tomasz Kozłowski’s book is available at the Agora bookshop in the Market Square.
