The Leap into the Void:
On Taking Risks
There are a certain set of conditions which are necessary to dive off Donkey Rock. First, it should be a hot day and therefore the sea will be warm - today 13th June, 2023 it is 15.4°C. Next the tide must be unusually high, arriving ideally in the late afternoon.
Or so I understand, I’ve never dived off anything, mainly because I’m not a great swimmer. Hardly a swimmer at all in reality.
When I was young I used to fearlessly vault over the wooden horse, do somersaults on the trampoline, and for fun, hang upside down on the bars in the school playground. The opportunities to do much of this were limited by the school timetable - I think we had thirty minutes of gymnastics a week - most of it spent in a queue of around fifteen other girls (our sports were gender-specific though the school was coeducational) waiting to bounce or jump or balance on or over the piece of equipment we were learning that day. The other sports lesson was an hour of netball but as I never got picked for a team this time was also spent standing around doing nothing, bored out of my brains.
I hated school. It traumatised me and stultified me. Why, as a training for life, did we ever think that this idea of forcing children from the age of four or five to sit at a desk was a healthy one?
Now I spend half my time sitting. It’s the downside of being a writer.
I should walk much more. The action of walking seems to stimulate the mind, almost as if the soles of the feet were pumps for the brain.
Essay originally written in June, 2023. Photographs by Jo Mazelis.
risk because less attractive when we gather more responsibilities.
What a great photograph! Isn't it interesting how our love of risk is diminished as we age.