Close To The Edge

Risk and Reward

Kids seem to do it naturally, I know I did.

Of course it’s a good age – broken things heal easier, it’s quite exciting, and you don’t know what you don’t know.

So what’s wrong with walking on the edge?

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Falling – with a safety net

I’m not sure how many people I’ve told this tale to – certainly not many at the time…

Johnny and I were quite a pair, and I don’t know if there was anything we were afraid of. He’s the reason I sport one of the crowns in my mouth. (But that’s another story)

We were fond of the hillside and woods behind his house, and found a good climbing tree – covered with vines.

Out here!

And then one day we discovered that climbing on the outside of the tree was just as fun as climbing up it, and with all the vines, we could stand on the top of the tree!

It was great – until I fell off the outside of the tree one day.

I’m recalling there was some jostling among the gang that afternoon as we were climbing, and my slippage was not entirely my own fault, but fall I did…

It got better!

That’s right – not only did I not get hurt by the fall, we discovered that the vine cover at the bottom of the tree was just as thick! It’s like we had our own trapeze net underneath the tree.

We proceeded to spend the next couple days perfecting “falling” off the top of the tree…

Not only had we gone close to the edge, we had jumped right past it to find an even better edge.

A dose of reality

The end was sudden.

No, there weren’t any injuries or investigations.

It was more of an “uncovering” – of the full set of risks…

And again, I was up front.

There had always been some sort of gamesmanship in determining “who goes first”. Things like “I’ll go if you go”. I was generally in the front of the line, and think some of the others went as late as “gang of four boys” social norms would allow.

And when I went off this last time, on my landing my butt sagged through a bit of weakness in the vines. I didn’t climb back up the top as we normally did.

Discovery

And there underneath my body I saw the rock. No, boulder is probably more accurate.

If I had, in fact, slipped completely through the vines, my head would surely have been quite dented by the boulder below.

And after discovering the “real” danger of our impromptu past time, I didn’t have the inclination to try it ever again. (And if Steve wouldn’t do it, nobody else would either;-)

I’m pretty sure none of our parents ever heard that story – the others’ parents seemed just as strict as mine, and I didn’t feel like testing the waters with that sort of revelation – and I don’t think the other boys would risk it either.

All in good fun

Adventures – we had them aplenty. Perhaps not all to that extent…

But given an edge – a group of soon-to-be 4th graders are quite likely to take things to it – and perhaps beyond.

And you can make some interesting discoveries when you do that.

I like to think that I still venture out there now and then…