Manny's up to bat

I'm gonna bring this one full circle, so don't think I'm just yappin about my weekend, ride it out.

I had last Friday off so I went and surfed County Line (so named because it lies on the border between L.A. and Ventura County). It's a beautiful spot. Way up in Malibu, just across the street from Neptunes Net. It feels really far removed, which is nice. The surf started out pretty nice, some of the bigger surf I've had all summer. I went with my buddy Sam. The surf died after about an hour, but enough time to get some waves in.

Next day, while I'm at the gym, Same calls me up and says "Wanna come fly with me?". He's training to be a pilot and gets hour sessions in small 2 man airplane. This plane we took up only weighed 650 lbs. It can fly at 25 mph and not loose altitude!!! I know this because he told me and then showed me. So, we flew out of the Long Beach Airport. He took us up to 2000 ft. and we cruised out over the Queen Mary, south past San Pedro and out over the Donald Trump Golf course in Palos Verdes. By the way, before we took off, he insisted on taking the doors off the plane. So we were cruising around some So Cal coastline, 2000 ft. in the air with no doors on. I was a little scared, but it was so much fun.

That night we went to see the Dodgers battle it out against the official spoiler/rival team, the San Fansisco Giants. The Dodgers won and it was a great game.

What I really want to talk about though is the last statement I made about the flight. I honestly am afraid of heights. I think I always have been. I'm also scared of big waves. Nevertheless, I love flying, skydiving, surfing, cliff jumping and other action sports. I'm lead to believe that one of the reasons I love doing these things is because they scare me.

While talking with a friend last Sunday, we began to discuss the notion of how being afraid of somthing could make you like or even love it. The conversation wandered into the realm of relationships. As I'm sure many people have, I have often found myself doubtin and afraid in some of my relationships, which has caused them to not work out. And then it dawned on me, if being afraid of the many risks and dangers involved in the sports and hobbies I enjoy can make me love them more, why couldn't the same principle apply to my relationships? This would take some meditation to see how it might work.

I started to write the conclusions I came to on the subject, but it got pretty long. I'll finish that in the next post. For now, go Dodgers. Go Joe, go Manny! The magic number is one. October baseball is just around the corner. See you in the playoffs!