About a week ago, I got this provocative fortune in a cookie at a Chinese restaurant. It’s not often that you get interesting admonitions from Panda Express, but this one got us talking.
My wife and I couldn’t think of many things that we had done that were “scary” over the last 5-10 years (a blue moon is once every 30 months, on average). The closet I came to “scary” recently was solo-camping in my small Jeep in a closed-up for the winter state park open the Canada border last October. It was cold, isolated, and a little scary, I guess.
We were going to ask our son about the fortune when he told us that he and his girlfriend were going skydiving on Labor Day weekend. I don’t care how brave you are, skydiving is scary to anyone who hasn’t done it before. His girlfriend said she expressly wanted to try it because she had a real fear of heights.
While scary, the odds of having an “incident” on a dive are relatively low. With the help of AI, he calculated that the odds of dying in a tandem-skydiving jump were 1 in 500,000. Low odds for sure, but compare that with 1 traffic fatality every 79,000,000 miles driven.
Skydiving is out of my “Decluttered Bucket List”. An “DBL” is something I’ve been thinking about describing in a post for awhile, but haven’t quite framed it up yet. I’m thinking that these are the things that once might have been on your bucket list, but now you are too old or don’t care about doing them anymore. You’ve decluttered your list and the thought of doing them doesn’t bring you joy anymore.
Their jump went well. They were most surprised by how cold & noisy the free-fall part of the skydive was. At 120+ mph that has to be pretty intense! The total experience was only about 10 minutes, but they really enjoyed it. Not enough that they feel the need to do it again, or become regular skydiving enthusiasts, but enough that they were proud & happy that they had done it.
What scary things are on your bucket list?
MrFireStation 
Come down to AZ and I’ll take you out flying! While it is very safe statistically, it takes courage to strap yourself in and feel the propeller pull you through the air into the sky!
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The risk of a fatality in a small plane is 1-2 per 100K flight miles, according to ChatGPT. I guess that’s actually higher than skydiving (1 per 500K drops). I only flew in a small plane once … a 6 seat Havilland Beaver “float plane” in Alaska. We flew into a few of the fjords up there and landed on the water a few times.
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I happen to have had a very active adventurous time in my teens and twenties which included ice climbing and other adventures including spending the night due to a late morning start on top of the Grand Teton. Given the adventurous activities which I participated in they were done with extensive mitigation of the “scary” factor. When you are prepared with the proper training and gear, what is scary to many when the inevitable happens is just inconvenience and cold.
I am in my early 60’s with a health issue which keeps me from backpacking and my wife is 70 and I recognize that she likes to have me nearby. My scary bucket list was fulfilled decades ago. I am fine with those activities being in my rearview mirror.
That does not bother me. I recognize that both my fun activities and my vocational activities over the decades have been more extensive thrilling than most people envision. To me that is who I am. I have had great experiences, and I continue to have them, they are just different. Today I go to the opera and enjoy it. Years ago I drove three hundred miles to ski three full days, I would not do that today, Do I miss it? I miss the skiing but not the drive. All is ok
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That’s good advice … fulfill your scary bucket list when you are young. I think I did a pretty good job of that. I can’t think of anything other than skydiving or a hot air balloon ride that I’m no longer “up for”.
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Recently completed a “canyoning” adventure which included rappeling down a 150ft cliff face into a canyon and then completing numerous jumps and slides into whirlpools created by the river running through the canyon. All this under the direction of a guide, but definitely faced my fear of heights.
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Wow – that really sounds fun. I’ve only been rappelling on relatively small climbing towers before. Maybe 3 stories / 30’ up. I think I could do a 150’ rappelling adventure. The great thing about rappelling is that you are close to & facing the cliff face – not looking out at the drop.
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