Amateur High Dive

Amateur High Dive seems like a random name for a blog of writing and spoken word.  

I chose it for a simple reason.  High diving is an activity that takes precision, focus, and a monumental amount of training.  A person really should spend years upon years in preparation, learning the exact technique for each dive in order to complete it with the grace and beauty intended.  Otherwise there could be a painful series of bellyflops and awkward spills into the pool.

I bellyflop from time to time.

It would be great if you could go through life always having the time and ability to prepare.  To take on every challenge with a calm sense that you know you are ready for it.  And for a lot of things that is true.  

But I submit that for the truly important life changing instances, there is no preparation.  For the moments that really make up our biographies there is no preparation good enough.  There is no getting ready.  The moments just come, with your heart in your throat, mind buzzing and the entire world rushing at you.

No precedent.  No muscle memory.  No training.  

You make it up on the spot.  You kiss a girl for the first time.  You bellyflop.  You lose your virginity.  You swan dive perfectly into the pool making a tiny splash.  You go off to college.  You stand on the high dive and wait for the fear to go away.  It doesn't, so you jump anyway.

Later you call it a memory.

I am an amateur high diver.  

So that's the story behind the name.  

Check back, every week there'll be new poems, stories, videos, songs.  

Feel free to leave some comments and let me know what you think.

or contact me at bobbyg.8@gmail.com