Have you ever heard the expression ‘If children don’t know, they will give it a go?’ While on vacation in the Georgia mountains, a friend said this and it stopped me in my tracks. It means most kids are willing to try just about anything until we get a hold of them and instill fear. I am not suggesting we ignore things like stranger danger, killer bees and rabid dogs, but maybe we’ve made ourselves and our kids afraid to try anything new.
I am a first-class worrier. In fact, my kids will tell me what’s bothering them, so I can do the worrying for them and they don’t have to. So I wondered if I could get that childlike feeling back, the one that makes you excited to try new things, to ‘give it a go.’ I decided I would do this while on vacation.
First up was a visit to Tallulah Gorge State Park. The name alone conjures up a variety of my phobias: water, suspension bridges, nature—but I was pretty certain after taking a look around at the other park visitors, many in flip-flops, that I could at least handle the hike. It consisted of about a million metal steps. I am not lying about the number. Seriously, a million, maybe two. I had no problem crossing the suspension bridge over rapidly flowing water, even when some of the other visitors caused it to swing. So no problem with the nature part. But I couldn’t do the million or two metal steps. Uh-uh. Instead, I ended up lying in the air conditioned visitors center with a nice park employee pouring water on a rag to cool me off as I reconsidered my newfound life motto.
But I wasn’t ready to give up yet. The next challenge was jumping into a lake from the second story of a dock. I have a few rules, and near the top of the list is this one: Don’t swim in water where other organisms make their homes. That means no rivers, no lakes, no oceans. Another one is don’t jump off anything or onto anyone. As I stared at the lake I thought perhaps I could break one of my rules? I slowly lowered myself into the lake from the dock and floated around trying not to think about the creatures beneath. Yuck.
The final thing I was going to have ‘a go’ at was boating. I like boats, as long as they are the size of The Love Boat and have Captain Stubing at the helm and Issac at the bar. Smaller boats, not so much. There are far too many unknowns, including sinking, crashing and pirates. The one thing I didn’t count on was motion sickness, which on a pontoon boat, over the side rails, is not so pretty.
My few days of living as a child willing to give everything a go was hard. Because of my age, and (I’ll say it) my wisdom. I can’t unknow what I know. I knew the knowns and the unknowns, but far scarier were the unknowns I didn’t know. And when I start quoting Donald Rumsfeld, well, we should all know that it is time to end my experiment.
[You can contact patty at phannum@townandstyle.com .]
