Pondering parachutes

Parachute Pondering

These thoughts they cross my brain

Linked together like a chain

There’s no use  I won’t complain

That’s just time gone down the drain

I have spent time on a train

ridden bikes through storms of rain

It’d be a thrill—Perhaps insane

Should I jump out of a plane???

This morning the rain was hauntingly cold, but garbage is what garbage is and it’s not going to up  and wander it’s way to the dumpster.  It was a not-so gentle reminder that the fall season in the land of the pine is about to shift and soon the evergreens will remain while the rest will stand stark until the calendar rolls over and through the holiday corridor.  It seems the calendar moved pretty quickly sometimes in this last year—but that’s what people who spend more money on candles than cake when it comes to birthdays often say.  

Well walking back empty handed thoughts came to what the rest of the day might bring and beyond that  how many things on how many days will need some attention before what they call the permenant winter.  Some folks might refer to this type of musing as t”thinking about your “bucket list”. 

This morning the pondering of this sort didn’t render a large list.  However one item has appeared and vanished several times over time.  It’s not there now and maybe it has gone the way of phone booths, blacksmiths and keypunch operators—just a memory.  

But what about this parachute idea.

How did someone answer “Yes!! Let’s suspend me from a tablecloth  on some wood strips (DeVinci’s notion) or some rope and jump from somewhere above the earth okay?”   Well history says the first successful parachute  drop came from a hot air balloon in France right before 1800.  No one talks about jumps before that  which were not successful mainly because those people attempting  to do so really didn’t talk much after their efforts came up short and a lot faster than they anticipated so to speak.

Once success was achieved people, as people do, started to find all types of reasons to dare nature with these ice cream cone shaped bed sheets and of course one of the most significant advances came in the name of having healthy people jump out of perfectly good planes  holding weapons so people on the ground could shoot at them until they got on the ground and started shooting the people already there.  Of course, in order to avoid being floating target practice jumpers started this practice of jumping at night onto the ground hundreds and sometimes thousands of feet below in the dark heading for someone on the ground who had started a small fire or had a flashlight.  Oh and because these troops might need things in front of and behind enemy lines we strapped parachutes on equipment and food and all sorts of things and tossed them earthward too.  

Well fortunately right now we aren’t doing that so often except to put out wild fires and smoke jumpers are already a special breed of people who run into fires and what’s the big deal about jumping out of a plane to do that?  Since around 1940 that’s been an effective way of getting to remote places before there are wildfires raging through downtown Reno.   

So what about doing this just for the thrill —just for the fun?  What’s that really all about?  Well about  40,000 US citizens have a certificate  or a license to take their double chute  pack —yes having a back-up chute is now standard because you can sky dive without a chute opening once but after that and hitting the earth (some have survived it) at terminal velocity  which for a human is a mere 120 MPH, a back up plan seemed like a good idea.  In fact the modern pack that runs about $8,000 or so including helmet and a computer sensor that can automatically deploy the spare if it seems you are taking the free falling a little too freely.  Oh and the modern parachute isn’t the round shape any longer.  It is a rectangular wing-shaped contraption  that you can steer a little bit …unless you know .. you don’t control the weather  as you drop the ten or 14 thousand feet that is the normal distance jumps are.  When it’s around 10,000 you get about 30 seconds of free fall and at 14,000 it’s about a minute.  Now the world’s record is some slightly twisted fellow who rode a super high  altitude balloon to about 25 miles high and how high was he?  When he decided that was a good idea?  

Okay let’s get down to earth and to the peace and joy part of this.  

In life sometimes we face barriers and need something to lift us above them knowing there will come a moment when we must have the courage to take a leap into a whole new space.  Rising above or away from where we are now may make it possible to gain a whole new perspective and to choose a different landing spot where we can begin again.  Many people board that plane  and dare to see another perspective, however, so many of us get close to the door but don’t trust that we have the parachute we need or will be able to find support where we land.  So then our plane circles around and in no time we are back right where we started.  There is little peace and joy in that.  Perhaps if we want others to leap to better things we need to jump with them or we need to promise to be on the ground and not where we are now but where they will land and need our support.  Sometimes we all just need to believe the support will be there or come when they see us falling.  In short- take a breath- take a leap- hold tight to the chord and three-two- one—rip it!!!