Leap of Faith

Today my mom told me she enjoys reading my blog so now I feel compelled to deliver something special. Let’s see if the creative muse will help me out.

A few blogs back I mentioned something about skydiving. Specifically, I have the desire to jump out of a plane with some big dude strapped to my back and pray my life does not come to an end. I’ve never been skydiving before so I have to go tandem – that explains the big dude. My sister and co-conspirator agrees it would be a great thing to do as a team. My wife totally disagrees but my life insurance policy has her reconsidering. The economy is rough you know.

This past Saturday I was hanging out with some friends and I mentioned our plan to them. To ease my wife’s worries my friend told us about a guy he knows who jumped out of a plane, plummeted to the ground with his parachutes opened but tangled, hit the ground, bounced up, and ultimately yelled, “You can’t kill me!” I love the story and it’s true (the incident happened in Ocean City, MD and made the reality show circuit – Google it) but my wife was not so thrilled.

As the night proceeded I was sipping the Goose and my tongue loosened up so I shared a funny story. A few years back I was on a ride in Kings Dominion which lifted you into the air in a seated position and then let you free fall back to earth stopping abruptly short of the ground. As we reached the top of the ride I put my arms up and started yelling in preparation for the fall. Next thing I know the world went dark. I had blacked out on the ride and my wife witnessed the whole thing. It was actually quite exhilarating and I felt great when I finally came to.

My friends heard this and broke out in laughter as they physically demonstrated how I would look falling through the air passed out with some big dude strapped to my back.

I demonstrated how I would take a deep breath (to avoid passing out) as I jumped from the plane and this only made them laugh harder. Yes, everybody enjoyed a rib busting laugh at my expense, but that’s cool. I’m still going skydiving and when I figure out why I will blog about it.

Until then enjoy the lesson of the night. Great leaps of faith don’t require extraordinary effort. They simply require you to say, “I will,” and the jump for your life!

I think Under Armour has built a great brand campaign around this concept. Check it out.