Posts tagged psychology

I am trying to decide if indecision is a good or bad thing when it comes to signing on the dotted line with a sky diving school. I am sitting on the proverbial fence. What has brought me to this point to begin with, I who live my days out carefully and cautiously, always looking both ways when crossing the street and remembering to floss twice a day? That is exactly the point; I am in a rut and for the second half of my life to be worth getting out of bed for, I am going to have to shake things up a bit around here. Empty nest syndrome, menopausal hormones and just plain old aging are all a bitch.

Up until recently, sky diving has never seriously tempted me -- especially after hearing a story (and wouldn't you know, it involves a fence) that my husband tells of his third and final jump. On that bright and breezy day, his jump comrade had the misfortunate of landing with his legs straddling a barbed wire fence. The situation not being dire enough in Mother Nature's judgment, she puffed his chute up again with a generous gust of wind and dragged him many life altering yards before giving the poor chap a break. Naturally (or unnaturally!), life changed irreversibly for him that day, regardless of the many reparative surgeries that followed.

The male's plumbing, depending on how he lands, is not the only one that can be affected by the duress of this particular risk-taking sport. A well respected incontinence support site claims that up to 12% female would-be free fallers drop out of their sky diving training because of stress induced incontinence. This makes a lot of sense when one thinks of how a lowly, unexpected sneeze is enough to make the crimson rise in many women's cheeks. That abbreviated corridor, the female urethra, can hardly be expected to hold back bladder pressure with 100 % certainty over the years when one takes into consideration how most women's bodies stretch, sometimes snapping back and sometimes not, to accommodate babies, wild hormone changes and weight fluctuations that make up the feminine life.

All the same, it seems grossly unfair that a little thing like wetting her pants should exclude a woman from breaking out into this world of death defying adventure if that is how she should choose to get her kicks. It is time for adult diapers to be de-stigmatized and get some shelf space in that sexy spandex- dominated category of sports gear. Astronauts both men and women, unabashedly don what they call MAGs (Maximum Absorbency Garments as NASA euphemistically refers to them) for their burst beyond earth's atmosphere which demands more than their normal body functions will allow. Why not allow that same expectancy for a woman who letting off a little steam, jumps from a Cessna several thousand feet above her hometown and screams in the face of gravity?

I take a look online at an array of canary yellow and hibiscus red jumpsuits snapping in the air currents. I see the divers' gleaming smiles and I can feel a decisive mind shift taking place. The allure of freefall, those few seconds that follow a leap of commitment, has me suddenly in its grip. This is quite possibly one of life's best offerings, an opportunity that will bring me as close as I can ever come to experiencing pure, unadulterated flight. And in this case, absorbent underwear may well be a girl's best friend.