
My previous posting talked about our boat and the need to get a little more adventurous with it. We did that last week when I went skiing for the first time. My wife used to ski when she was younger, but hasn’t tried it in about 15 years. Her first attempt was short-lived, but she got up on the second try and went on for several minutes before deciding that she was done. You mean you can decide when to stop?
My attempts at skiing were a little bit… different. I’ve never attempted to ski before. It looks easy enough: you hold on to a rope and stand up, right? I made four attempts and actually got up on the third try, which everyone told me was really good. I don’t know if this encouragement was sincere or pity. Here’s how it went:
Attempt 1: The boat took off. I fell down.
Attempt 2: I did what everyone told me not to do – I tried pulling myself up with my arms instead of letting the boat do it for me. When you do this, your feet shoot forward and you fall. Since I was trying to muscle my way up, my arms were bent. When I fell, this put the handle about groin-high with my legs bent in front of me. My hands let go of the handle but it was trapped between my legs. Now my back was being dragged across the surface of the water with the handle stuck between my legs. Neat trick… I meant to do that. The handle finally pulled through (painfully) and I have two impressive bruises as a souvenir.
Attempt 3: This time I kept my arms straight. Two groin-high thigh bruises are excellent teaching tools. I slowly came up and straightened my legs – I was skiing! The boat built up speed and I started getting comfortable until I shifted my weight too far forward. With the boat at speed, I actually fell forward and hit the lake face-first. Remember the “agony of defeat guy” on the opening of ABC’s Wide World of Sports? I told everyone in the boat that I was fine and it didn’t hurt. I lied.
Attempt 4: The ski rope sank and I had to swim around for while attempting to locate it. With skis on, this is exhausting. Add in the other skiing attempts and my legs were now two columns of Jell-O. After the boat gathered speed, I tried standing on my wobbly legs only to dip down until my rear hit the water. I learned that when you do this, all of the water is directed straight to your face. I also learned that I ski with my mouth open. I wasn’t giving up. I got halfway up before dipping down again. My mouth was still open, but I was tenacious. I got halfway up again… and dipped back down. You’d think that I would learn to keep my mouth shut. With my legs exhausted, I was sort of skimming the surface of the water on my rear – water still directed toward my face, mouth still open. I’m pretty sure water was shooting out of my ears. After swallowing a few quarts of lake water and some small aquatic animals, I let go – thus concluded my first skiing trip.
Here’s an attempt by attempt analogy of my skiing attempts to life:
Attempt 1: If you’ve never done it before, you probably won’t do well and you won’t look good trying at first. However, you’ll never get any good at it if you don’t try.
Attempt 2: Skiing is like a lot of things in life. It requires balance, flexibility, and endurance. What I lack in balance and flexibility, I try to make up for with strength. A lot of people do this. It works for a little while, but you end up exhausted, bruised, and bobbing in the water. Don’t get me wrong; strength is important, but without balance and flexibility it will lead to failure.
Attempt 3: With persistence, you may see some early success. This is not the time to get too cavalier because you are still learning. Continue to learn and acknowledge that you are still learning.
Attempt 4: There is a thin line between tenacity and stupidity – learn to recognize it. Also, when things aren’t going the way you thought they should, it is sometimes best to keep your mouth shut.







June 30, 2009
Lions on the Prowl
Posted by Jason Barr under Social Commentary | Tags: Social Commentary |[2] Comments
In the past few weeks there have been multiple reports of lion sightings in my county. That’s Hall County, Georgia – we did not move to Zambia. Although numerous people have reported spotting some sort of large cat to the authorities, there has been no confirmation that an actual lion is on the prowl in northern Georgia.
The alleged lion has been blamed for getting into trash (ever hear of raccoons?), killing a horse, and contributing to the financial crisis. Some of the witnesses swear that what they saw was an African lion. My guess is that at most it may be a mountain lion or more probably a large Chow with a creative haircut.
Here’s the point I want to make: the local paper has published numerous articles about the lion sightings and lots of people are talking about it, but we’re ignoring some of the real problems and very real terrors that surround us. In the state of Georgia alone, it is estimated that between 200 and 300 children are trafficked each month!
At a conference few weeks ago, I listened to Francis Chan speak a little bit about this problem. Before his talk, his little girl played the piano and sang a song. He then went on to talk about the success of his latest book Crazy Love. Despite the huge success of this book, he won’t make a dime from it because he has signed over the royalties to an organization that helps fight human trafficking.
Francis said that he has gotten a lot of advice from people telling him that he should keep some of the profits in an emergency fund. His response was that the money was going towards an emergency. Our society is so self-centered, we only consider an atrocity like the trafficking of girls as young as 10 years old an emergency if it happens to someone we know. What if his little girl who just played the piano was one of the 200 to 300 children trafficked this month? He would do whatever was necessary to get her back to safety and you would do the same if this happened to someone close to you.
Sara and I are thinking about getting involved with a group called Street GRACE. It is “a non-denominational alliance of churches dedicated to supporting, enlarging, and allying with those individuals and organizations working toward eliminating the commercial sexual exploitation of children.” You can go to their website here.
I think we need to start paying attention to the real dangers facing us instead of speculating about the monsters under our bed.