Baby Jumping: Officially the worst idea for a sport EVER. My fave is the dad holding up his little girl to watch like he’s all “If you don’t pick up your toys, you’re next!”
Highlights of our Memorial Day vacation: Rain. Rock climbing in the rain. Hail. Archery in the rain. Lightning. Horseback riding in the rain. And the coup d’etat: Leaving our third son at the cabin and not realizing it until we were on the stage at the Lodge performing our family skit and the little guy missed his cue. Oops. We made a lot of fun memories this past weekend at Camp Warren! But for my three boys the highlight was “BORP’ing.” BORP’ing (which as far as I can tell is not an acronym for anything) is where you start each day at dawn by cannonballing into the freezing lake — just to say you did. BORP all three days and you earn a polar bear pin and eternal bragging rights.
Now, I know the many virtues of cold water swimming, especially first thing in the morning. It revs your metabolism. It builds brown fat (the good fat that you want more of). It makes you smarter, stronger and have a better immune system. Not to mention that you are immediately AWAKE, no messing around the campfire in your pj pants all day. Whatever. I’m still not doing it. The first morning I watched and handed out towels. After that I stayed in bed. (All the while ignoring the research about sleeping in on weekends royally messing you up. Vacation for me = drowning out the research voices with cinnamon bears and late nights.)
It turned out that only my second son finished all his BORPs. (Perhaps “borp” describes the noise you make while doing it?) Curious as to how he’d managed this feat when I can’t even get him out of bed with warm pancakes and whipped cream, I asked him, “So how did you make yourself jump in that lake?” I kinda expected him to cite peer pressure — his best friend did it too — or the reward. (Although a cheap metal pin wouldn’t it for me. A cheap metal finisher’s medal on the other hand…) Instead, he answered, “Mom, you don’t have to make yourself jump in the lake. You just have to make yourself jump.”
Wise words for an 8-year-old. Who still thinks underwear has two usable sides.
Seriously though, how many times have you psyched yourself out of doing something you really wanted because you were so focused on the cold, murky, dark, lake below that you forgot the glory of the jump? I have. Just yesterday.
Literally: At camp they have this thing called “the pamper pole” (again, no idea what the name means — it is the least spa-like experience I have ever had) where you clip into a harness, scale a 50-foot telephone, stand up on top of it and then… jump. Your harness catches you and your teammates lower you back down to the (rain-swamped) ground. At least that’s what you’re supposed to do. I climbed that pole. And I got on the very tip top of it (while it’s swaying, I’ll wait while you imagine it and try to stop laughing and/or wetting yourself). And then I couldn’t stand up. I just could not make myself stand. There’s nothing to hold onto and even though I mentally knew I could balance well enough to straighten up, I just couldn’t do it. After “enjoying” the view for several minutes, bobbling around like a wet-cat antenna topper, I finally took a deep breath and threw myself off the top from my crouched position. It wasn’t a glorious leap. It was an ignominious fall. Same soggy end. Whole different feeling.
Figuratively: These past few weeks have been fraught with anxiety for me. Fun things are happening with my job and while I’m excited I’m also one of those people who likes to overanalyze things. I am acutely aware that by saying yes to one good opportunity I am saying no to many others. I’m the queen of second-guessing. (Yes I am. Don’t even try to de-throne me. I will whirl you in a tornado of semi-rational logic until you think a Kim ‘n’ Kanye “reality” show is exactly what this world needs right now.) Unfortunately, if you sit on the fence (er, pole) long enough the choice gets made for you and often it’s not the choice you wanted (hello, rain enema!). But if you make the jump, even if it turns out to be the wrong one you still have the knowledge and the empowerment from making the choice. (Yoda say: no wrong there is, only lessons learned. Thank you, I’ll collect my geek pin now.) Same soggy end. Whole different feeling.
Looking at the big picture is great and I’m definitely not telling you to ignore the consequences attached to your actions (you choose the beginning, you also choose the end) but there comes a point where if you keep focusing on the big stuff you become too paralyzed to act. That first step towards your goal — no matter how tiny it is — is huge. Because it gets you off the ledge.
Back at the shore, as my son turned to run after his friends he called over his shoulder. “Oh, and the lake Mom? It’s not cold at all once you’re in it!”
I need to stop thinking. I need to jump.
Bonus points for style!
Have you ever done a polar bear jump? Would you have tried the pamper pole? Are you more of a big picture thinker or are you a details person? Anyone else have a ledge they’re trying to jump off of right now too?!
Love the idea of polar bear jumping! I am also in the works of trying new things and this article inspired me! Thank you!
the pamper pole is named such, because it’s so scary you should be wearing a diaper. 😉
Hahahah! SO TRUE.
Reminds me of when I went bungee jumping. I have an intense fear of heights, so despite going into panic attack mode, I was able to look up at the sky and think: “All I have to do is run.” So I ran until suddenly my legs were kicking in the air like some kind of cartoon character, and only then I allowed myself to look down–as it was a bit too late to take it back.
PS–I’ve been to a hot springs area where they have the super hot pools next to the freezing pools, and man does it feel amazing to back and forth between the two. After the first few dips you get kind of addicted to the rush. 🙂
I’ll…. take your word for it;)
My goodness you have a wise child!
“Mom, you don’t have to make yourself jump in the lake. You just have to make yourself jump.”
Love that!
Not that I would ever voluntarily jump into a freezing lake or off a high platform. But as you noted, life presents all kinds of freezing-lake situations and I’d really like to work on being one of the jumpers rather than the ditherers.
Very excited for whatever changes are coming for you, hope to hear more! You are so talented that I suspect you’ll kick ass at whatever the new gig calls for.
Thanks Cranky! I really struggle with the whole “not good enough” thing so it’s nice to know you have confidence in me:)
Wow, I wasn’t expecting such a philosophical post from someone fresh out of weekend holiday! Love that quote by your son; you should turn that into a needlepoint sampler or a poster or something.
I’m usually a full-speed-ahead kind of person with most life situations, but I totally freeze-up when it comes to heights. No way you could get me up a pamper pole!
Which is why I’ve been obsessing the past few days over this video about the sky-diving granny slipping out of her harness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqjfZnJEURM&feature=player_embedded (Don’t worry; she doesn’t die1)
Holy crap, my heart is pounding! Not that I wanted to sky dive before but now… eesh. And yes, needlepoint sampler. I’ll get right on that one;)
I’ve never done the Polar Bear Plunge, but we used to do this thing when I was little where you fry in the hot tub for awhile and then play some random word game so that when you lost, you had to jump back into the freezing pool. Let’s pretend that counts.
Anyway, congrats on whatever big developments are brewing! I’ll be honest and say that I wish I had something exciting and yet nerve-wracking in the works, but it’s pretty much status quo (despite my many failed attempts.) I’m not great with change, and of course now that I kind of feel like I want it, I have no wear to “leap,” so to speak. However, I’ll keep trying and look forward to your updates 🙂
I learned this as a springboard diver in high school. I used to freeze up before a dive, but I finally realized that if I didn’t think about it and just got myself off the board, I was committed to the dive. However, the flipside of takeoffs is landing, and I’ve never been good at those (even in water)–I managed to give myself a broken nose when I landed a dive wrong.
There must be something about boys and cold water. We sometimes vacation at a hotspring in the mountains and they have a couple of cold pools as well as hot ones. My son, for some unfathomable reason, will swim in the coldest pool (about 50F) for ages–he claims to enjoy it.
I did a polar bear plunge this past February. Definitely NOT one of my brighter moments. But it was for a good cause and I raised too much money to chicken out! (I posted in a mostly-male drum forum that I would post bikini pics if they would cough up some cash – and they did! Over $400! So yeah, I was kind of on the hook for that.) It wasn’t scary, just stupid cold.
However, when I did the Tough Mudder last month, I totally froze at the Walk The Plank obstacle. It was a 30′ drop into a quarry. I’d venture to say the water was probably about the same temp as the water from the plunge, too. I climbed to the top of the platform and just. couldn’t. do. it.
I’m still kicking myself over that one. I *know* nothing bad would’ve happened – I just couldn’t bring myself to walk off the edge.
What a great concept! I’ve used a similar philosophy in life, but I’ve thought of it more like, just do it, to get through difficult things. Once you start, you can deal with difficult tasks. The hardest part is getting started.
That said, a motto isn’t gonna get me to jump off a high surface. 😉
I learned in gymnastics that there is a point where you have to shut your brain off and just execute. I’ve learned to pull the switch, with a deep breath, and focusing on a mantra or phrase. Freaking out and sillybrain is allowed before that point, but I’ve learned that as I’m setting up for the trick (geez, as a non-gymnast that must sound really dirty), or as the national anthem plays before the gun goes off at the race, I usually shut most of my brain off and just think “execute”. I can’t think of anything I’ve climbed up and had to climb back down (although metaphorically, that was most of my late teens/early twenties – so terrified of anything “new”, but that’s another story).
And I HATE cold water. It makes me lose my breath and freaks me out. I love being a triathlete in Texas… we rarely race or swim in a lake under 70 degrees…
I wish I were a detailed thinker! I get too caught up in other stuff! And yes, I have a ledge there but still overthinking! 😉
No, have not done that polar jump & don’t plan too! 😉
Hope all works out great for you Charlotte!!!!
I have done the Polar Bear Plunge, though for me it was more of a swim… I went to a camp a kid where we did this in the dead of winter. Ok, I do live in California, but still. They would have to make me get out of the water. Can I write your son’s quote on my classroom quote board??? I love it!!!
The closest I’ve come to a polar plunge is jumping into Lake Tahoe in a bikini. But it was July, so it doesn’t really count…
It’s funny, I JUST finished chatting online with a guy I knew in high school and had a crush on. Turns out he also had a crush on me, but we were both too afraid to act on it. And the way we saw each other was COMPLETELY different from how we saw ourselves.
I’m thinking of plunging into part of my former life. It’s a little scary, but exciting, too.
And, who knows, maybe next winter I’ll do an actual Polar Plunge!
(BTW, kudos to you for getting up the Pamper Pole & jumping, falling, lunging, however you did it! You DID it!!!!!)
This shot is really great, it’s make me smile as I look into it… Beautiful!
It was truly great post, polar bear jumping is very interesting… I love to try it… 😀
If you are the queen, I’m the princess of second-guessing. I once told some friends I’d do the polar bear plunge with them and then totally chickened out. Lake Michigan is cold in the middle of the summer – no way am I jumping in to that on New Year’s Day!
I’ve never been a fan of doing something just to say I’ve done it. I think it’s the rational brainiac in me coming out. I just don’t identify with that mentality.
Cold water swimming is also great when you’re having hair problems( losing your hair), if you are the kind of person like me, that is always looking for vitamins and new methods to grow more hair, this is the thing to do, I had problems and cold water swimming saved me tons of money, also great topic I found it interesting.