Zones of Comfort
and Taking a Chance
Janet Kuypers
4/23/19,
written on National Take a Chance Day
“Honey I’m still free,
take a chance on me”
1977 song, ABBA
I recently heard
that Mark Twain said,
“Twenty years from now
you will be more disappointed
by the things you didn’t do
than by the ones you did.”
#
Once, after I had money saved
and sufficiently hated my job,
I quit — and traveled around
the country by car, driving
eight hours a day to visit
old friends and new cities,
so I could otherwise try to
get out of my comfort zone.
Months later I got the chance
to fly an airplane, and I thought,
‘I’ve never done that before,
so... why not,’ and off I went.
Later I looked
at the ravages of time
and wondered
what I was waiting for,
when I talked about jumping
out of an airplane years ago.
So I went to Longmont, so I
could have a good view of the Tetons
when I jumped from seventeen
thousand feet above sea level.
...I was never scared, I’d be fine, and
what’s the point of fear anyway.
More recently,
while snorkeling,
I saw in the distance
what looked like
a white-tipped shark,
sleeping along the bottom
of the ocean. I had
no scuba gear,
but where I was
it wasn’t deep,
I promised I wouldn’t
get too close, and as I swam
I saw at least twenty-four,
maybe thirty of these sharks,
all peacefully sleeping,
in a perfect row.
In fact, today
was my scheduled day
to purchase an electric
hybrid American car.
...And come to think of it,
I heard about a man
who wore a stainless steel
woven metal suit, where he
could then literally conduct
two hundred-thousand volts
from a Tesla coil to what
looked like right through him.
There’s a video of this man
in his metal suit,
conducting electricity
from this Tesla coil
to his outstretched arm,
along his body and
through the wooden stool
he stood on, then finally
into the ground. After this,
I keep thinking that there’s
a certain electricity in the air.
And I have to wonder,
if we wear the same size
and I could fit into that suit
to move some electricity myself.
#
Because maybe it’s true,
maybe you’ll be disappointed
by the things you didn’t do
versus the things you do.
So... honey, I’m still free.
So take a chance, like me.
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