Today, I stopped at a two story brick house that had a wrap-around wooden balcony on the second floor. It didn't go all the way around, but it reminded me of my parent's office building -- only smaller. Anyway, there was a section where the guard-rail was missing. Beneath that section there was a hugemongous black trampoline!
Anyway, I got to the house and it looked like there might not be anyone home, because the house looked so new and there were no cars in the driveway. There were two garage doors though, so I got out and gave the front door a knock. Two little guys came to the door and I quickly found out that their mom wasn't home, but they assured me that she'd be back soon and that I should wait. On my way out she pulled up.
I tried to help everyone bring in the grocieries and stuff, but that kinda fell through -- I did get a sit-down though. She also ordered a book with the intent to order more when I came back. (I do this from time to time. I tell my customer to go ahead and order a minimal order and get the rest when I return.)
After that I asked to jump from the balcony to the trampoline. One of her boys had done this a couple of times before, but she wasn't really sure about it. I told her that I needed to do it because I have a fear of things like that, which is true.
At some point the other brother, Matt, woke up. (The two boys at the begining of this story were the son and a friend, Hunter) He wanted to jump too, but he had never done it before. He was afraid. I was too, and I told him I was, and it was obvious that I was, but I still jumped, because I wanted to get over that.
Matt thought that was a decent enough idea, so he stood around and thought about jumping for a while. We (his mom too) were all encouraging him to do it. At one point I told him that this was so much bigger than just jumping down to the trampoline and that it would all be over in a flash so he should just do it.
In the end he made up his mind not to jump.
I was thinking about what I had said to Matt and realized it was so much truer than I had thought. Had he jumped it would have completely changed the way he felt about himself and it would have changed his identity. He would no longer have been the chubby, fearful, conservative kid that he still is. He would have instead been just like me and the other two boys. I thought that was pretty interesting. There were other interesting things I got from this, but it is way past bedtime now so I'll have to continue this later.
Now I am very sore in my neck and shoulders. Perhaps this trampoline thing wasn't such a great idea after all. Of course, it could have just been the way I chose to fall the last two times I jumped.
Posted by: David at June 30, 2004 11:22 PM