Monthly Archives: June 2013

I have become fascinated by the high dive. Diving, as a competitive institution has been recorded since before the bible; Yet never once, until recently, have I taken a moment to really think about it. To stand on the edge of a platform and leap off into a body of water far below in such a way that not only minimizes the splash, but also reveals ones form, is an incredibly difficult task. There are many different factors that play their part in the process. First there is the take off. There are two things that cannot be changed after this point in the dive. The trajectory of the diver, and the speed of rotation. It’s imperative that the diver has perfect placement and angle in order achieve each dive without making a grave error. Then there is the twist. The torque of the divers spin may be altered according to the divers arms, legs, head and body angle. These factors all contribute to the final and most definitive part of the dive; The entry. If the diver is slightly off on any of the previously mentioned factors in calculation, it can result in serious injury. However when executed just right, the dive becomes a masterpiece.

We all have to make the decision regarding the tapestry called daily life. The older I get the more I am starting to see that every day is a dive from the board. From the moment our feet leave the deck, to the instant we slip beneath the water we are creating a work of art. Some days we make miscalculations, and others we get it just right. Some days we hit the water flawlessly, and others we belly flop. Some days we are reminded how weak we are but others, with God’s providence, we prove strength.

The world record for highest dive was made by Olivier Favre at Villers-le-Lac, France on August 30 1987, from 177 feet. Can you even imagine? I cant tell you how he even got the courage to do it, but what I can tell you is that his record dive was not his first. The greatest divers have the most painful diving memories. If you want to dive from great heights, you have to first dive from the small ones. And If you want to go any higher, you have to get on the ladder and climb up there. Remember today, that every day is one dive in a million. Make it a good one. Make it count for your career and family. Make it a work of art. Start well, twist and spin well, and end well. But If your backward 2 and ½ somersaults in the piked position isn’t perfect, climb the ladder and try again because no matter how it starts, or finishes, tomorrow is another dive.

The other day I spent some time driving un-necessarily… I live in central San Antonio and anyone who has driven through here from 3pm-8pm will know, If you make the wrong turn you better call ahead where your going because there’s no way your making it on time. Anyhow, what happened was nothing out of the ordinary; I was mailing a t-shirt at the post office which happed to be right in the middle of two major Texas Interstate roads. Getting back on the road I had to make a quick transition to get where I was going and because one of the 9,907,739 White Chevorlet’s here in San Antonio, happened to be exactly where I needed to be, I missed my 10 yard window and had no choice but to continue into the daunting fray of endless loops, overpasses, Turn-arounds and confusing merge junctions that is Central San Antonio; Now, I am not an angry person, but I have to admit, I lost it a bit. One of the weirdest feelings when harboring a raging volcano within is, first of all, not being able to let it out, because lets face it, no one is there in the car so what’s the point of saying anything? Secondly, its odd having to ignore your explosion because there are two semi trucks on either side of you, a Pinto 3 inches in front of you and and a drunk guy in an El Camino behind you, and if you take your focus off of the road for one second, you’re basically in the middle of a scrap heap on US-281 Southbound.

So I continued down the road because, lets just be honest, what choice did I have? Aside from the fact that I have no time to explode, I had no other option but to decide what I could do to fix this situation. I realized that I had to accept that I was going to have to go for a ride because the direction that I was going had no way to turn back. It was a few moments after this that I came over the hill and caught a view of the biggest small town in America…

Honesty is one of the foundational principles of consistent peace. In that moment I was forced to have an honest moment with myself. Why was I so upset? Where was I going that was so important that I spent part of my 100 years here on earth to have an unpleasant moment on purpose? It caused me to take a look at some other things. I’m realizing that It’s not very common that a person gets to where they are going in life on the road they planned. Not every moment happens the way we thought it would and sometimes I find myself on a different road. So what choice do we have but to enjoy the scene. I have been making some progress with the EP recently and I have to admit, it has NOT been the journey I thought it would be. In the interest of honesty, some things have been difficult to get through, but for the first time in a long time (Demos included) I am proud of what I have done. I have had to re-do some things and cut losses which has been really difficult for me, but you know what, any way I slice it, it’s mostly my fault. I have spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself. I spent a lot of time with my eyes on the road signs that say the wrong thing, and I should have just been enjoying the skyline. The road I take might not be the road I chose but why should that be a reason to miss out on anything? Let me encourage you if you are currently on a back road. Take a second to appreciate the routes we all are forced to take sometimes. A road is a road is a road. Our world is FULL of amazing things that we constantly miss out on. Don’t let changed direction make you miss out on the ride…