What seems like a very short time ago I made a new friend. Unfortunately on the occasion of our first socializing she told me she was moving a long way away in two weeks, like from the harshest climate in the United States to the mildest. She is gone now, but I did receive a text when she arrived at her new home and it announced the arrival but also said something about if things didn’t work out she would be back “Septemberish.”
I had to think about that for a moment and about my own adventures and then I wrote back that she had to think forward not backward and that the first part of a new adventure is almost always a little intimidating.
Upon further reflection, more crossed my mind, about handling the early part of an adventure and about what had landed me in that situation in the first place.
I remember setting out on an ocean voyage once and one of the fellows on board apologized ahead of time for the depression he expected to experience after a day or so when he realized he had gotten himself into this once again.
I have had the same feeling at times when I felt the creative rush that gets me about a chapter and a half into a book until the inspiration wears off and it hits me that aw gees, this is the start of a year in my life. There are several well-intended, misguided attempts around here somewhere that were cut short by that realization. The same thing happened in the early days of building the three houses I built too. Fortunately I worked through it and persevered in those endeavors.
But then there are those thoughts that get you started in the first place, like the first time I went skiing. My friend and I stood at the top of the expert slope at a Western New York ski area (not exactly Vail). It looked pretty frightful to tell the truth. My friend said, “What’s the fun of doing something if you know how?” With that he took off down that hill and after an “oh crap,” I followed.
I still remember sitting across the desk from the banker who was about to give me the loan to build my first real house. All I had ever built to that point was the very simple cabin at the East Pole and a dog house. She asked, “Can you build this house?” Exactly $100,000 of her bank’s money was at stake. I remember taking a measured but deep breath and looking at the ceiling, then the wall, then out the window and then turning to look her straight in the eye and saying, “Yes.” Inside I felt nothing close to the confidence I was hoping I was showing her.
And, like, you always think those trapeze artists who work without a net are fearless, but I don’t think so. I think it just makes them better and more careful because they know they are going to get hurt if they fall, as opposed to those who work with a net and know a fall is just that much more fun.
Was it Ben Franklin who said “nothing ventured, nothing gained?”
And I know Jimmy Buffett sang “we did it for the stories we could tell.”
And Crosby, Stills and Nash sang about, “...time we have wasted on the way.”
Or was it Gary Bacon screaming down that ski slope at Kissing Bridge, New York, his panicked “OOOOhhhhhhh, damn” fading into the distance?
Have you envied “all the dancers who have all the nerve?”
The urge is getting stronger every day to get it on again.
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