CANDLELIT CHRONICLES: HISTORIC HAUNTS

November 20, 2012: SKYDIVING????!!!

November 20, 2012: The topic is skydiving. Would you do it? Or have you done it?








         The topic in question is “skydiving,” but this could be interchangeable with almost anything:





Career change, moving out of state, living alone, moving to a gated seniors’ community in Arizona or Florida, taking up hang-diving or lumberjacking, learning the art of sushi preparation, eating shellfish..the list goes on.





         The point is that I live vicariously; for the most part I always have. Reading began at a very early age, and from the very beginning reading was my sanity and my salvation. Reading was, and always remained, my “way to live,” vicariously. I read about historical eras and contemporary settings, both genders, all ages, extraterrestrials: anything I was not and never could be. Reading was also (and remains) my catharsis: to overcome psychologically the dysfunctions in my own life, I took up reading (and watching) horror at an early age: Vincent Price, Hammer Films, and always, always horror in fiction and factual recounting.





         In the 1970’s, long before the term “serial killer” became household iconography, I read novels in which that type of character predominated. I was the office expert on Ted Bundy’s crimes, reading up on them in detail and regaling my coworkers (to their dismay). Reading and thinking meant I didn’t have to face my personal demons (well, at least not all the time.)





         So back to the skydiving question: are you kidding? One of my overwhelming phobias (too many to count) is fear – of- (wait for it)-HEIGHTS. I don’t fly-at all-and I sure will not SKYDIVE, HANG-GLIDE, TAKE PILOT LESSONS, RIDE IN A HELICOPTER-you get the picture, Constant Readers. I will read about it, though: living vicariously. In six decades I’ve lived vicariously a few thousand lifetimes. How many more can I “live” before I pass on?:)