Wednesday, November 3, 2010

the sky's the limit

how many times have you heard that phrase?
well, my question is, which part of the sky?
because it seems to me that the sky begins where earth leaves off, basically at our feet. and then it extends upward until . . . until when? it goes and goes and goes, the most expansive substance in our experience.
tomorrow afternoon I plan to experience a different part of the sky than I've ever known before: a part that is somewhere between the stuff by our feet and that which I've flown through in an airplane. a part that's not really near the earth at all, a part that I hope is thick enough to hold me up for at least a little while.

it's all because my family has a sense of humor.
I crashed on my bike ten days before my birthday, and what they gave me for a birthday present was a gift certificate to go paragliding.
yes, paragliding.
that's when you get attached to a big set of wings and jump off a mountainside, I believe.

I told them I needed to get through lotoja, and then I'd schedule my experience. well, it's that time, and I head up to that middle stretch of sky tomorrow afternoon. I get help, thank goodness: I'll actually be doing a tandem glide, with someone who knows what he's doing in charge of it all. and I'll learn what it's like to be somewhere in the midst of sky, no terra firma beneath my feet, no pedals clipped to my shoes, engaged in an entirely different kind of swooping than I'm used to.
and who knows, I might fall in love with a new kind of adventure, one where truly, the sky is the only limit.
I'll let you know how it goes!

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