July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Everyone can use a little adventure (02/04/08)
As I See It
By By DIANA DOLECKI-
She is trying to kill me. There is no other explanation I can think of to explain my daughter's recent behavior.
I received an email the other day with pictures of her and another woman. They are strapped together and there is no land in sight - just clouds. The other woman is wearing a helmet. My daughter is not. What she is wearing is a grin from ear to ear.
She had jumped out of a perfectly good airplane in the name of adventure or maybe just to give me heart failure. Is it any wonder I worry about her?
She was not the only one in that tiny plane suffering from temporary (I hope) insanity. There were seven or more others making their first jump, like she was. Three people were making solo jumps and a video crew was there filming it all. That's a lot of mothers left on the ground hoping that nobody gets hurt.
Don't get me wrong. I am glad she is brave enough to try things most people are afraid to do. I want her to have the excitement she craves. It's just that I can foresee all kinds of horrible things happening to her and I want her to be safe. It was one time that I was glad we live so far apart. I would have been a basket case until she was safely back on the ground.
I can just hear the phone call that will come one day, "Mom, I'll call you when I get back. Dr. Adventureman, my friend, Nurse Enthusiasm, and I are going to parachute into the heart of the Amazon rain forest to save somebody who was injured by a previously undiscovered saber-toothed tiger. Don't worry, Emma is coming, too." Emma is two and my only grandchild. Thank goodness she is too little to jump out of airplanes - yet. But if she did she would demand to wait until she put on her sunglasses. She has a thing for sunglasses lately.
If there is one thing my daughter likes more than adventure it is saving people. She would save the entire world if she could. Except me. She is bound and determined to send me to an early grave just worrying about her!
It is natural for parents to want their children to be safe, no matter how old the children are. I foresee worrying about her adventurous spirit the rest of my life. Adventure is great but there is also an implied and inherent danger in adventure.
It is true that sitting on the couch is safe, well, most of the time, anyway. But sitting on the couch is boring beyond belief and does nobody any good.
By paying somebody to shove her out of that airplane she proved to herself that she is strong enough to tackle any challenge she deems important. She has never been one to sit on the sidelines and probably never will.
I envy that bravery. I am just the opposite. I am afraid of just about everything. It doesn't stop me from doing things, except for jumping out of planes, but it does stop me from having that big grin on my face.
Maybe we all need a little adventure in our lives just to prove to ourselves that we are stronger than we think we are.
Diving into the unknown is something that seems to be inherent in humans. We sail around the world when we are convinced the world is flat and thus discover new countries. OK, so the countries were already inhabited but apparently that is irrelevant. We explore the width and breadth of our planet and then blast off to explore that big rock called the moon.
My daughter completing her first jump is part of that compulsion to explore the limits of her soul. But for every person that has exciting adventures, there are loved ones who are left behind to worry. We worry because we know the dangers involved and since we can't prevent them from doing whatever it is they do, we worry.
A little rain dance to keep the plane from going up never hurts, either. Too bad it didn't work.
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I received an email the other day with pictures of her and another woman. They are strapped together and there is no land in sight - just clouds. The other woman is wearing a helmet. My daughter is not. What she is wearing is a grin from ear to ear.
She had jumped out of a perfectly good airplane in the name of adventure or maybe just to give me heart failure. Is it any wonder I worry about her?
She was not the only one in that tiny plane suffering from temporary (I hope) insanity. There were seven or more others making their first jump, like she was. Three people were making solo jumps and a video crew was there filming it all. That's a lot of mothers left on the ground hoping that nobody gets hurt.
Don't get me wrong. I am glad she is brave enough to try things most people are afraid to do. I want her to have the excitement she craves. It's just that I can foresee all kinds of horrible things happening to her and I want her to be safe. It was one time that I was glad we live so far apart. I would have been a basket case until she was safely back on the ground.
I can just hear the phone call that will come one day, "Mom, I'll call you when I get back. Dr. Adventureman, my friend, Nurse Enthusiasm, and I are going to parachute into the heart of the Amazon rain forest to save somebody who was injured by a previously undiscovered saber-toothed tiger. Don't worry, Emma is coming, too." Emma is two and my only grandchild. Thank goodness she is too little to jump out of airplanes - yet. But if she did she would demand to wait until she put on her sunglasses. She has a thing for sunglasses lately.
If there is one thing my daughter likes more than adventure it is saving people. She would save the entire world if she could. Except me. She is bound and determined to send me to an early grave just worrying about her!
It is natural for parents to want their children to be safe, no matter how old the children are. I foresee worrying about her adventurous spirit the rest of my life. Adventure is great but there is also an implied and inherent danger in adventure.
It is true that sitting on the couch is safe, well, most of the time, anyway. But sitting on the couch is boring beyond belief and does nobody any good.
By paying somebody to shove her out of that airplane she proved to herself that she is strong enough to tackle any challenge she deems important. She has never been one to sit on the sidelines and probably never will.
I envy that bravery. I am just the opposite. I am afraid of just about everything. It doesn't stop me from doing things, except for jumping out of planes, but it does stop me from having that big grin on my face.
Maybe we all need a little adventure in our lives just to prove to ourselves that we are stronger than we think we are.
Diving into the unknown is something that seems to be inherent in humans. We sail around the world when we are convinced the world is flat and thus discover new countries. OK, so the countries were already inhabited but apparently that is irrelevant. We explore the width and breadth of our planet and then blast off to explore that big rock called the moon.
My daughter completing her first jump is part of that compulsion to explore the limits of her soul. But for every person that has exciting adventures, there are loved ones who are left behind to worry. We worry because we know the dangers involved and since we can't prevent them from doing whatever it is they do, we worry.
A little rain dance to keep the plane from going up never hurts, either. Too bad it didn't work.
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