Thursday, May 26, 2011

Seriously, Though

It's safe to say that every moment in one's life is the result of all previous moments, but some moments are more culminating than others. Every once in a while there's the rare instance that requires you to stop and remember what brought you there.

It's a gratitude moment. It's standing at the end of the diving board and pausing to remember--not your training, because that's in your muscle memory--but your trainer, your friends, your family, your education, your lover, your past, your present, your good and your bad. All of it--all of it--has brought you there and made you ready. You don't know what's next, but you give thanks.

And then you dive.

And then you laugh at yourself for having chosen a picture of cement to accompany these thoughts.

32 comments:

dive said...

Sounds like a wonderful moment, Petrea.
Love the grass shadows on the wall.
As for the high board; I just do it for the thrill of falling and the blue sky and the blue pool tumbling over one another. When your eyesight is as poor as mine that can be pretty trippy.

Mister Earl said...

Start a nationwide local news website and use that as your logo.

Anonymous said...

Kablam!

Petrea Burchard said...

Hi Dive (high dive), I haven't literally dived off a high board in ages. But figuratively--well, let's hope I wasn't diving onto cement.

Earl, where've you been? Nice to see you.

MG: that and kerplooie! Splat!

Speedway said...

Then, after all that hard work, all the training, before you dive ... check that there's enough water in the pool.

Virginia said...

I"m laughing too cause I was reading it and looking at the photo and wondering what you were smoking! :)

Great photo of cement Darlin!
V

Virginia said...

and I've NEVER taken a dive off a board and only once or twice (in the fifth grade) off the side. I am not your most daring friend.
V

ben wideman said...

Wise words, Petrea. And an incredible photo to accompany it! Brilliant as usual.

Petrea Burchard said...

Well, I was thinking of the shadows of the grass--like they were some kind of graph, and there was this high point. Then I got off on the diving board metaphor.

Well, I could have erased it all and gone with a graph metaphor. Or I could have gone looking for a picture of water. Or...

Speedway said...

Or you could make it a series.

Petrea Burchard said...

Could. Unless, you know, kersplat.

Dianne Emley said...

Bombs away!

Trish said...

am lol...

no matter how long I look at the picture, my mind STILL tries to make it something it isn't. Looks like a wall, not sidewalk and my mind is trying to justify the grass and shadow and how the sun can be coming from under the grass...brain overload!

and don't look to me to be jumping off high dives with you. I don't do edges---heights don't bother me, edges scare the boogers out of me. I was terrified of the neighbors wall that was at best 5ft over the pool (probably 3, but I was smaller then)--I'd jump from the side of the pool or from the exit edge at the deep end.

Susan Campisi said...

Intriguing, brilliant thoughts. As a kid, I was so afraid of diving off the high diving board, yet I had to do it to pass a swimming test. I haven't done it since. But just this morning I was thinking how I need to start doing things that scare me. I wonder if it's time to dive off the high dive again. Or, ummmm, maybe just metaphorically.

Petrea Burchard said...

Metaphorically is good. After a certain point, what have we got to prove?

Artistically, though, and emotionally, there are times when it's good to "follow the fear." And yes, I'm quoting an improv teacher I once had, Del Close. He was one of the greatest.

Steven said...

Iwas going to say what ever happened to the saying, "Look before you leap."

Susan Campisi said...

Yes, I've read that too: follow your fear. Improv sounds pretty scary to me. Maybe I should try it.

Watson said...

I think the contrasts in this photo are amazing...and did you notice the new life forming in the sidewalk crack???

Anonymous said...

I thought of a graph as soon as I saw the photo. Wonderfully creative illustration to your point.

TheChieftess said...

I thought it was a wall at first too!!! A very intriguing photo Petrea!!!

Speedway said...

If looked at as a graph, the jagged shapes seem a tad manic. Seen as grass, well then, it's growth.

Petrea Burchard said...

I actually photographed it the other way. This is upside down.

Anonymous said...

ginab:

leaping into the unknown, diving from great heights, improvisation in front of an audience . . . JSYK, our Petrea was Eddie Murphy's FIRST EVER improv partner. He was nervous about it, and P reassured him. The rest, well, you know.

Petrea Burchard said...

Ginab, it was almost like that, with a slight correction. I got to improvise with him at The Second City after he'd done a season on SNL. He said he had never improvised with other people before. I think he had probably done plenty of off-the-cuff on his own. He did say he was nervous, but he blew us all out of the water.

He also had the first Sony Walkman I had ever seen, and after that I just had to have one.

Latino Heritage said...

Really enjoying the texture of the walkway.
This'd be a good banner for a grassroots org.

LPB said...

Next time take a picture of a mashed insect on the sidewalk and talk about bellyflops...

Petrea Burchard said...

Once I posted a picture of a dead bird and people got upset. So it would have to be a not-very-gross mashed insect.

John Sandel said...

How positively Silversteinian of you.

Ms M said...

Great post! Good to remember there are times when you just have to "go for it".

Bellis said...

Everyone's comments are so good today. I'm not even going to think about jumping off the high board. The one and only time I did that, I bellyflopped and it hurt almost as much as landing on cement. Hope that never happened to you.

Speedway said...

I hate diving into water. I tell people I learned to swim to stay on top of the water. I did learn to make a nice shallow dive to enter the water, however, where I become the Michael Phelps of treading water and swimming many lazy laps.

WV: weane. Yep, that's me, with a long E. 'Fraidy cat.

Petrea Burchard said...

I don't do much swimming these days, myself. Too cold. And if the opportunity arose to improvise with Eddie Murphy I'd say no (if there was an audience), though I'd be happy to work with him if we had a script. I'm diving into different waters. Maybe that's what I mean (would've helped if I'd known what I meant when I wrote it.)