Thursday, March 03, 2005
Did he jump or was he pushed?
(This photo, supposedly untouched, comes from archinect, via City Comforts)For decision-making purposes, I'm a "Two" kind of guy. Yes, most things in life are grey, not black 'n white. Yes, most things in life are complicated and geometric instead of simple and linear. But, for decision-making purposes, for computer machine language purposes, and for efficiency's purposes, "Two" is the way to go. Yes-No. On-Off. White-Black. You get the idea, speed over accuracy sometimes is the optimal way to go. "Two-fer"s rushed you to the next decision. And the next...
Bing. Bing. Bing.
In a young boy's passage, a "Two-fer" that came up early was "Jump-Stay". Playing around creek beds or tenament roofs, it became quickly obvious to the kid gangs jostling, grabbing, knocking each other around if you were a jumper or you were not. The "not" were also called wussies or some other finely honed barb to a kid's spirit. With some kids, this needling would act as the impetus to stray from unsure to airborne. With other kids, the sheer fear combined with being off the ground was enough to run, stop, and...float. I was one of the latter, usually being among the first few more than happy to leap over water or open space between buildings. I am not talking about bravery here; at that age stupidity was often mistaken for bravery.
Besides, we were all convinced that if we did leap and we did not make it, heaven was waiting for us. Cloud jumping sure looked tempting.
No one in my little group ever got seriously hurt, even when roof-jumping. A scrape here, a bruised knee or elbow there, a soaked pair of Con's on occassion. Since no one suffered injury, I never put any heavy emphasis on this part of my childhood or its long term effects on growing up until I was in college and doing the backpacking Europe thing that was de rigeur (in my time, at least). At two different times, I happened to be on some cliffs, once in Corfu and another time in Dubrovnik. What brought these memories back was this picture. At least according to the two sites listed, this photo is not touched up. It is 2 guys playing tennis on a helipad on the top of the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai.
Suddenly, I was back on those cliffs and the desire to jump that I felt when there came back. Looking at the picture, I couldn't understand how those 2 players did not have the same urge. Stand by the edge, look down, and jump into the void. What a release to leap.
(This photo, supposedly untouched, comes from archinect, via City Comforts)For decision-making purposes, I'm a "Two" kind of guy. Yes, most things in life are grey, not black 'n white. Yes, most things in life are complicated and geometric instead of simple and linear. But, for decision-making purposes, for computer machine language purposes, and for efficiency's purposes, "Two" is the way to go. Yes-No. On-Off. White-Black. You get the idea, speed over accuracy sometimes is the optimal way to go. "Two-fer"s rushed you to the next decision. And the next... Bing. Bing. Bing.
In a young boy's passage, a "Two-fer" that came up early was "Jump-Stay". Playing around creek beds or tenament roofs, it became quickly obvious to the kid gangs jostling, grabbing, knocking each other around if you were a jumper or you were not. The "not" were also called wussies or some other finely honed barb to a kid's spirit. With some kids, this needling would act as the impetus to stray from unsure to airborne. With other kids, the sheer fear combined with being off the ground was enough to run, stop, and...float. I was one of the latter, usually being among the first few more than happy to leap over water or open space between buildings. I am not talking about bravery here; at that age stupidity was often mistaken for bravery.
Besides, we were all convinced that if we did leap and we did not make it, heaven was waiting for us. Cloud jumping sure looked tempting.
No one in my little group ever got seriously hurt, even when roof-jumping. A scrape here, a bruised knee or elbow there, a soaked pair of Con's on occassion. Since no one suffered injury, I never put any heavy emphasis on this part of my childhood or its long term effects on growing up until I was in college and doing the backpacking Europe thing that was de rigeur (in my time, at least). At two different times, I happened to be on some cliffs, once in Corfu and another time in Dubrovnik. What brought these memories back was this picture. At least according to the two sites listed, this photo is not touched up. It is 2 guys playing tennis on a helipad on the top of the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai.
Suddenly, I was back on those cliffs and the desire to jump that I felt when there came back. Looking at the picture, I couldn't understand how those 2 players did not have the same urge. Stand by the edge, look down, and jump into the void. What a release to leap.
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little side note, the two playing tennis on the temporary court are tennis stars Roger Federer and Andre Agassi.
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