Greek myths and skydiving wisdom
My name is Kim Bo Larsen. I'm 30 years old. I have about 6000 jumps to date, and am a Tandem instructor, AFF instructor, videographer, Safety & Training Advisor amongst many other things.
I'm a bit of a history-freak, and a bit of skydive-freak also. I have written blogs for a DZ before. Mostly safety tips. This is my first try at a blog just for myself. I'm not trying to sell anything at the moment. I just have time on my hands. I love thinking, writing, and first and foremost I love skydiving. At the moment I have no real direction to go with this blog. I just write whatever comes to mind. The first idea for a post came from the name of my blog - Icarus and Deadalus.
The story goes that Daedalus and Icarus were trapped in a labyrinth, that Daedalus himself had built in Crete. He had been asked to build the labyrinth as a result of an ugly mess he found himself in after first killing his nephew Perdix, claimed inventor of the compass and the saw, by throwing him out from the Acropolis in Athens.
He then fled to Crete, where Minos and his wife Parsiphae ruled. The ruler of the seas, Posidon, had given Minos and Parsiphae a white bull for the purpose of sacrifice. Minos decided to keep the bull instead. Posidon punished him by making sure that Parsiphae was attracted to the bull.
Daedalus, being the craftman he was, was asked to build a wooden cow in which Parsiphae could mate with the bull. As a result, the Minotaur - half man, half bull, was born.
When Prince Theseus of Athens came to Crete as a human sacrifice to the minotaur, Ariadne, daughter of Minos and Parsiphae fell instantly in love with him. Trying to save her love from being sacrificed to the minotaur, Ariadne too went to Daedalus for help. She asked him how Theseus could master the labyrinth and escape. By securing a thred of flaxen to the entrance, he went in, killed the minotaur and escaped. Theseus and Ariadne left Crete and went to Athens.
Minos - more than annoyed by the situation trapped Daedalus and his son Icarus in the labyrinth.
Daedalus went straight to work. Day after day he gathered wax from beehives and feathers from birds. When finally he had gathered enough wax and feathers, he set on to build two sets of enormous wings. He carefully instructed his son to not fly too high or too low. Flying too high would cause the wax to heat up and melt. Flying too low and he would risk being swept up by the sea.
Daedalus and Icarus left the island. The wings working well. But Icarus didn't pay attention to his farther. He flew too close to the sun. The wax melted and he fell to sea and drowned.
Now that was quite the story. And as with all Greek myths, there is something to take away and learn from.
What can we learn?
First of all, when when you are given something that you have asked for, you owe it to yourself and others to use it as intended. Minos asked for a bull to sacrifice. The bull was so beautiful that he decided to keep it. Posidon then punished Minos by making Parsiphe fall in love with the bull.
When you decided to make your first skydive, there was a fire in you. A fire in your heart and a urge to try something exciting and life-confirming. You have asked for an oppotunity to learn how to skydive. The reasons can be many.
Maybe you wanted to fly wingsuits - maybe you wanted only to be part of this great community that we have, or maybe you wanted to pursue the podium in one of the many desciplines.
No matter what the reason was, many people burn out because the fire has not been cared for, and they stopped being true to their heart.
Sometimes I've been close to burning out, and thats when I pursue something new and exciting. One time I got a new rating, one time I moved to a new country. Another time I co-funded and opened a DZ - and at the same time brought new ways of thinking, operating and marketing the sport to the country in which I was. Because my reason to start skydiving was to seek new adventures, and go in different directions than everyone else.
What ever you do, try to remember what brought you to ask for the oppotunity to skydive. Find that fire and nurish it. If it has gone out, blow on it, relight it and nurish it. Don't hide it, and don't forget the reason you lit it in the first place.
Secondly - The most well know perspectivation is, that as humans we should not fly too high and risk melting the wax on our wings. He had been warned by Daedalus that this was dangerous, but had to push it too hard, thus ending up dead. - I think we can all think of a situation where this fits in skydiving.
As skydivers we should always try and do better on each jump. And so did Daedalus. When trapped in the labyrinth he invented the wax-and-feather wings, pushing the limits but with precaution. The young Icarus was eager to follow his dad. He was warned. Fly too high and you wont suceed - but also: Don't push hard enough, and you won't get far. Icarus pushed too hard.
This is the classical example of the young skydiver who is in too big of a hurry, downsizes too fast and ends up hurting himself. He had been warned by the people knowing what they were doing and proceding with caution. But we seem to forget the message that is also there: If you dont push hard enough, you won't get off the ground. Seek new challenges, push your limits, but find the balance. Too much is bad, but too little is no good either.
So to sum it up: Be true to your original desire to skydive! Pursue new things, push the limits, but be careful. Listen to the older generation... And have fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment