The Roller Coaster
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E.B. White, the author of many well-known children’s books, including Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, also was an essayist for The New Yorker. In one of his pieces, entitled “Security,” he wrote:
I like to watch the faces of the people who are trying to get up their nerve to take to the air. You see them at ticket booths in amusement parks, in the waiting room at the airport. Within them two irreconcilables are at war – the desire for safety, the yearning for a dizzy release.
Recently, a roller coaster filled day at a destination theme park reminded me of those paradoxical longings. With a gaggle of adventurous adults and eager pre-teens, we embarked on a quest to ride as many roller coasters as possible, despite the humid, hot Labor Day weather.
Our challenge, at least initially, was that a few members of the younger set were novices in the world of soaring steel and corkscrew turns. As we stood in line for the first voyage, one of interlocking loops dubbed a Coaster Landmark by the American Coaster Enthusiasts, the first qualms set in. “I don’t know if I want to do it!” and “I’m scared!” alternated with “I’m gonna do this!” as we snaked through the lines, listening to the screams of those already flung skyward ahead of us.
My boyfriend later told me that one of his kids – part of the pledge class for the day – confessed to him that a significant worry was the possibility of throwing up on dad’s girlfriend. In truth, having been a coaster-crazed kid myself who never hesitated to jump on a ride but yet not having been on so much as a kiddie coaster in twenty years, I was a bit worried that I might be the one to throw up on the kids. Nothing like braving the fear together though, we sallied forth. And two minutes and ten seconds later, we had done it. Shrieking, with our eyes closed maybe, but coaster neophytes no more.
As the rickety metal cars slowed into the boarding area, on what was, during my childhood, the world’s tallest roller coaster (but today is a mere “icon” in the world of dazzling metal monsters), I asked the now-hardened theme park warrior next to me what he thought of the whole experience. Still half dazed from the panic and glee, he said without hesitation: “Can we do it again?” My legs a little wobbly as I readjusted to my inner theme park roots, I responded: “Sure, of course!”
Because why settle for either thrills or safety, when you can have the security of both? And especially on a day, at the end of summer, when the last gasp of vacation is still within our grasp, it’s not just advisable but mandatory.
from Wheels Up! http://ift.tt/1v8zoL3