Bungie Jumping, Video Games and the Flipside of Excitement

“Live with your lips pressed against your fears, kissing your fears, neither pulling back not aggressively violating them.” — David Deida

Every man is afraid. In fact, every person, child, pet, animal and living being is afraid. I’m afraid of writing this right now — that it might be read the wrong way or understood in a way I don’t intend. Or worse, you might not like it.

The fear is always there and will always be there irrespective of what live endeavours we choose to do. Either we’re held back, blaming the world for our misfortunes and remaining fearful of things out of our control, or we’re afraid of what awaits us at the next level as we rise up. Life isn’t incremental improvements as social media would have you believe — life jumps in stages. Like an elastic band that you have to stretch to its limit before it finally releases you with enough momentum to get to the next ledge. And when you get to that ledge, having passed the fear of the last level, you’re presented with new danger. Danger of the unfamiliar, the unknown and the potentially harmful. Like in a video game where you continue to level up as you get stronger — the challenges get harder and the monsters at the end of the level are the hardest. They’re scary…