Posted on 09/10/2019 10:47:31 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The story caused me to remember this...
Steven Wright: “I once tried to hang myself...with a bungee cord”
Didn’t take him long to want to get out of the marriage at any cost. Usually it takes a couple of years before the husband decides to string himself up.
“These people are seeking to fill some empty space inside themselves.”
The empty space being inside their coconut.
Has he made the Darwin awards yet?
I never saw the attraction of this thrill seeking. I did lots of Army stuff. That was my job. I see no thrill to do Army stuff in my free time.
Bridges are designed to be crossed, not leapt from.
The Taos Gorge Bridge is higher, but the canyon tapers sharply, so you have to mind your horizontal as well as vertical. Not many good landing spaces.
This dude found out in 2005.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psa6pJvMY50
Somebody needs to tell these boneheads..
Gravity isn’t a rumor!
It’s THE LAW!
He only feel 486 feet.
Seems like he could have bounced back from that...
Why?
ff
ff
When I was younger (think 30ish to 40ish years ago), I pushed personal growth envelopes in many areas. Desire to "be all I could be" led to military and civilian training in skydiving, aviation, SCUBA, and rock climbing. But in all cases I was doing it for personal growth and confidence building, and desired to learn the right way from experts, while heeding the rules that were written in blood by those who pioneered the sports.
When I see todays kids, I don't see them driven by the same things. Its more of acceptance and being popular in many cases (not all, but much more so than I recall in my younger days). Some will have the skill to 'push the envelope' and walk away, but many see the success of one as proof that anyone can do the same, very often resulting in their own attempts to push the envelope with possibly tragic results.
Those that are successful often set a bad example, IMO, in that they make it look cool and hip and 'easy', drawing in a following like a pied piper.
Perhaps these kids are drawn to this more because we have lost the idea of what traditional heroes are, idolizing snotty spoiled sports players in stead of family men (or women), or other good role models.
I will admit to having made about 15 BASE jumps myself about 35 years ago, but from heights twice that of this particular bridge. From 900 feet you have time, not much, but enough to deal with emergencies. I know of many of these younger kids who act like its a contest to lower that height to the lowest possible while still getting an open parachute. I don't think there is a winner in that kind of contest. But its difficult to communicate that to someone who thinks they are 1) invincible, and 2) hooked on the adrenaline of it.
Most of my friends that I jumped with are in my age group plus or minus a few years. I would be saddened by the loss of any of them. But its hard to feel much for this younger crowd who I might be acquainted, but don't have nearly that much in common with, when you see needless loss of life.
Nope.
I am always amazed by people who have to combine a gratuitous danger with something inherently celebratory.
I have piloted an aircraft, and skydived from one. But I had extensive training before doing either one - and it was done as a focused, independent event, not as the garnish on a completely unrelated activity, one that, like marriage, would be profoundly distracting.
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