Tell me a time when you just did it!
“I wasn’t thinking if anything I just did it.”
A quote taken from another line in Michael Finkel’s book about Christopher Knight, ‘The Stranger in the Woods’.
It is turning out to be a great book if you want to consider your life choices. This quote is taken from an interview with Christopher when he is asked what motivated him to drive to the woods and there remain for 27 years.
We are all likely to be less extreme that Christopher though I believe most of us at one time in our lives ‘Just did it’!
Ok, I’ll go first. Just as I type an instance comes to mind when I was about 15. Our gang were mooching (us: loitering) about the swimming pool, we spent a lot of time around the swimming pool. In one of my bids to impress someone dared me to jump into the pool from the top board with all my clothes on and guess what I did. We were swiftly asked to leave. What I would do for a bit of attention. For now, it is an example of just doing it.
There is something very powerful in making a spontaneous decision that is free from any thought that says, “Don’t”.
I was 11 when I and my friend Jack took ourselves off to the Armagh, a small city near our hometown. The purpose of the trip was to visit some regimental museum that our teacher had spoken about although it was more of a bid to impress him with our interest. Anyway, we soon got bored of the museum and found ourselves with little to do so I said to Jack, “Why don’t we walk home?” It was 12 miles but he agreed and so we did. Greater was the adventure in walking home than the trip to the city and the museum.
On another occasion when I was living in Galway I decided that I would cycle home, it was around 160 miles. There wasn’t much left of my pedals though I decided to go anyway. A few miles in I stopped at a cycle shop and had new ones fitted. It took me three days to get home but I did. It was a fabulous way to see the country and when it grew dark I sought shelter in a Bed and Breakfast (B& B) or a Youth Hostel. I felt such freedom riding and having the wind on my back.
Christopher Knight was not prepared for 27 years in the woods but he went into it anyway, compelled by a sense of throwing himself to fate and seeing what happened.
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