From Stephen Crane’s The Open Boat, a correspondent reports the scene of a shipwreck:
In the wan light, the faces of the men must have been gray. Their eyes must have glinted in strange ways as they gazed steadily astern. Viewed from a balcony, the whole thing would doubtlessly have been weirdly picturesque. But the men in the boat had no time to see it, and if they had had leisure there were other things to occupy their minds.
In June of 1987, I was repelling with a group of campers in the the Forest Falls mountains. There were times it was pretty scary for me. I’ve never been good with heights and we were definitely jumping off some big cliffs. I think when we are afraid, we are tempted to close our eyes. I remember closing my eyes a lot that week. A few times my friends coerced me into looking out into the majestic meadows I was hanging over but mostly I must admit I shielded my central nervous system with my eyelids.
Now, over 20 years later, I still have fears that tempt me to close my eyes. I don’t hang off cliffs anymore but with three kids, a mortgage, and a demanding job in teaching, I certainly have a tendency to feel overwhelmed sometimes. There are many ways we as adults “close our eyes” to our troubles. It could be as serious as drug use or as harmless as simply changing the subject. With the whole country in a recession, I know there is a lot of fear out there and a lot of people are probably thinking they’d rather be numb than feel the pain going on in their lives. To those I say this:
When I look back at those days on the cliff, I wish I would have looked more when I was scared. Perhaps I could have conquered that fear of heights I have to this day. The times when I was worried if I’d pass a class, I wish I would have shaken off the fear and just tried harder. These days I find myself in wonderful places all the time that could be scary or they could be amazing. I guess the only way I will know is to keep my eyes open.











