Basejumper.com - archive

Bored to Death is the name of a television
show that I believe airs on HBO. The wife
and I are watching it via Netflix since we
do not have cable, and as such are always
a little behind the current wave of stuff.

Cute show, 3 good actors who play 3 buddies
who each lead very different lives but all like
to hang out, smoke weed, and share what
is going on with them.

Anyways, in a recent episode Ted Danson's
character was just diagnosed with prostrate
cancer. At one point he needs to rescue a
kidnapped friend from thugs, Galifinakis'
charachyer is hesitant and Ted explains
knowing he has cancer makes him less
afraid of dealing with the thugs.

Just curious how you guys and gals who are
actively BASE jumping might use it to deal
with fears in the real word.

My mom has already had cancer like 6 times;
ovarian, breast, and skin - definitely part of
the reason I chose to never have kids, bad
genetics. And yeah I know environment has
a lot to do with it but I was raised by two
chain smokers who fed me from cups with
lead paint, went to school in an old building
in Pennsylvannia filled with asbestos, and
lived 5 miles from "3-Mile Island" nuclear
facility when they had their accident.

Needless to say, I am fucked, cancer is
probably going to get me if a BASE jump,
car accident, or disgruntled student does
not get me first.

First, please note, I hope you are laughing
because I am not looking for sympathy, if
I wanted that I'd be on Facebook not here
where the soup du jour is always Tough love.

What I am really curious about is whether
you people also shrug off common fears
with the same devil may car attitude that
has come to be my standard way to cope.

I cherish life. Back in '93 I had a motorcycle wreck that stopped my heart for, what I'm told, three minutes. I was in a comma for a week. Recently I thought I was having a heart attack. I had all the symptoms. I was sure I was going to die. Funny thing, instead of worrying about dying, I found myself cleaning my house and putting extra food and water out for my dogs. I wrote down my passwords for all my online accounts. Then I sent my exwife a text telling her I was having a heart attack. When I was in my room looking for my chacos I came across my BASE rig and I thought to myself "that figures" as everyone tells me BASE is going to kill me. Ha!

So, I figure, when I jump, I believe I am more prepared to go in than I am dying because of something that I don't have any control over. The way I see it, we all gotta die sometime. I surely don't want to make the list, however, I would prefer to instead of wasting away on a hospital bed due to cancer or some other worldly disease.

Luckily, it was my gal bladder and not my heart.

tom, did you really just call a show, "cute"......?

I think if people BASE for the right reasons, they also have a really increased sense of self and confidence. I don't mean self-confidence either. I mean that you end up really knowing yourself. "The foot feels itself when it feels the ground"...and you end up having confidence in things if you put yourself in a mindset anywhere near the mindset you have to put yourself in when you make a big jump (first jump (especially alone), first slider up/down, etc)...that mindset of full commitment and control over every single muscle, thought, fear, and action. That sense of being totally in the moment is incredibly powerful and I feel like normally I'm completely in the opposite, but through things like climbing (sketchier kinds), slacklining, and BASE I feel like I MAY be learning to put myself in that mindset at will (or at least something like it). I'm a scientist so I don't say this lightly, but I think that the human body and, more importantly to me, MIND are capable of much more incredible things than we could possibly think of (things that border on impossible). And part of that is being able to deal with things in a way that you wouldn't be able to without that mindset. I think it shows itself so often in life that it justifies the risk of the activities people go through to get there.

annnyways...my 2c