Shared life experiences

I have lived a long eventful life. Here are several examples.

ARORA BOREALIS

Goose Bay, Labrador sits at 53 degrees north latitude. You are far above the Arctic Circle. Winters with temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius are not uncommon with wind chills of up to minus 60 degrees. Outdoors you wear a parka with matching pants, mukluks on your feet, double thick and mittens and a muffler. When you look up at night the sky is darker than you’ve ever seen before. The black dome is pocked with thousands of jewels: satellites, planets, the Milky Way and myriad galaxies, each a rival of our own.

The feature that captures your imagination, however, is the Aurora Borealis. Eight and a half billion miles away the Sun sneezes, emitting ions, electrically changed particles of plasma that travel to Earth and are captured by the planet’s magnetic field. This forms a marvelous formation sixty to eighty miles up: A filmy shimmering, undulating curtain of dancing light. The memory is with you forever.

OF WHALES AND ORCAS

The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is one of the larger rorqual species. Adult lengths range in length from 39 to 52 feet and weigh between 28 and 33 tons.

It has a massive body, with long pectoral fin, a humpback and large head. Males can produce a complex song lasting ten to twenty minutes, often repeatedly.

What is wonderful about these mammals is its ability to breach more than its length far into the air, exhale mist and spray with joy, turn on its side and plunge into the deep to make the largest SPLASH it can possibly make before it sounds with a giggle.

With whales you often find orcas (Orcinus orca), highly intelligent carnivorous mammals. Each of these torpedoshaped beauties can be 23 to 32 feet long and weigh up to six tons. An individual can live up to eighty years. Pods of orcas are skilled hunters, able to swim in pods that corral fish in an underwater vortex and pick off living sashimi a la carte. Yummm!

SKY DIVING

Thirteen thousand feet along a road at sixty miles per takes just over two minutes. Thirteen thousand feet straight up is rather different. You are in a jumpsuit, with a parachute and instructor strapped securely to you. There are five of you aboard a single- engine plane: two seasoned jumpers who go alone and you three novices. The cabin door is open and the two go first. Now your turn.

You feel the breeze in your face and over you go. There are three parts to the descent. Freefall, chute, and landing. The most exhilarating is freefall. You are weightless and fall like a rock. You slide through the air creating your own waft. Snap! The chute goes up and you float. Now you can look around. Hey! There is your house!

All too soon the ground approaches fast. The instructor tells you to straighten your legs and down you go to a gentle bump, bump, bump. I have the film to prove it.

ZIP LINING

Members of the community of Hoonah, Alaska’s largest Native Tlingit village own and operate a large amusement resort at Icy Straight Point. During one of our Holland American cruises we stopped there. The zip line had just opened and not quite complete. To get to the top of the mountain required a long ride on a creaky school bus. The Ziprider zip Line is the largest in the world, at 5,330 feet. It has a vertical drop of 1,300 feet and a maximum speed of 60 mph. The Ziprider is built for exhilaration rather than nature exploration. It is a blast.

Life is not for the fainthearted. Take reasonable chances and enjoy new excitement. You will be better off for it.