My elder son was glued to the television more than usual the other day, watching a man wearing not a lot clamber at speed up an especially dangerous-looking artificial slope constructed in the name of extreme sports. As the guy reached the top and slid belly-first down the other side to claim a new record, my flesh and blood uttered a whistle of admiration.
'Dad,' he asked. 'Can I have a motorbike when I'm old enough to get a licence?'
There is a time and place for everything and this was not a good choice of either. I did not respond and as my son is 15, I have a few years to think about it. But knowing his predilection for activities that would scare the life out of ordinary people, such as my good self, any vehicle I buy him will look more like a tank than a motorbike.
That, of course, will not stop him from doing wild and crazy things to push his body to abnormal limits. There will be the day, I am sure, when he will turn from the TV, where muscle-bound men will doubtless be kick-boxing one another in the head in the name of sport, and ask me if I will fund his expedition up Mount Everest.
Given that weather conditions make May the best month to climb the world's highest peak and there are currently stories galore about this and that record being broken, I am well prepared for that moment.
'Go right ahead,' I will say, adding that he can find the requisite US$47,000 himself.
Anyway, I figure that there is nothing extreme about climbing the 8,850-metre mountain these days. In the 53 years since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to achieve the feat, 1,500 climbers have made it to the top, with dozens more succeeding every season.