A Necessary Flirt

Now as I unfold this many-layered thought there is but one important thing to keep in mind. Flirting is not the same as doing or becoming, merely hinting at the possibility of such. In this piece I am unfolding one specific genre of flirting, and I will explain the ‘what’, the ‘how’ and the ‘why’.

A standard definition of flirting from the oxford dictionary is as follows;

experiment with or show a superficial interest in (an idea, activity, or movement) without committing oneself to it seriously.

Now this obviously better worded than my humble definition, and plays an important role in you understanding my point of view on one such specific type of flirt.

Flirting with death. As mentioned in the title of this piece, I believe that flirting with death is a necessary flirt. That is the ‘what’ of this passage. Let’s come back to that in more detail later on, for now let us move onto the ‘how’.

How does one flirt with death you might wonder. Well it happens to be rather easy, but becomes much more difficult and much, more exciting the more audacious the flirt and the closer one becomes to crossing the line between flirting and doing. Think, driving at 300 kilometres an hour, that’s a dangerous flirt with death indeed. One small wrong move or unseen bump in the road could send you over the imaginary line of flirting with death and being dead. Extremely exhilarating though, and not to mention seductively enticing to those who have a need for speed. Think, skydiving. An obvious example, for if the parachute fails or malfunctions the possibility of death becomes 100% certain, and so any level of participation automatically becomes an audacious flirt with death. Think, big wave surfing. A colossal wall of water with the power and energy of a gazillion horses is rushing up to meet you and you intend to experience it on a surface level for a brief time, though any wobble or hiccup could send you into the undeniably dangerous washing machine of death and plunge you into the depths of Poseidon’s playground without any guarantee you will take another breathe of fresh, salty oxygenated air ever again. Audacious flirt, definitely. Now these extreme sport examples are prime examples of flirting with death because of how extreme they are. But let’s talk about little about some more mundane flirts with death, that the average person might encounter once in a while.

Sometimes we flirt with death accidentally, or incidentally rather than purposefully. When you stand on the precipice of a tall building’s rooftop, and look over the edge, I’ll be damned if you’re not looking up death’s skirt. When you cross the road and once in a while you forget to look and a vehicle rushes past you so close you get hit by the wind it displaces. When you walk underneath a construction site, a crane carrying a many-ton load perhaps, and you stroll right on through as if you aren’t flirting with the black cloaked scythe wielder. When you get in your friend’s car after they’ve had a few too many, but you’ve done it so many times that you convince yourself you’ll all be fine, that’s audacious flirtatious behaviour with the endless sleep through and through. When you indulge in alcohol and party drugs while at a music festival, you have no way of knowing exactly what you’re putting in your body but you do it anyway, and you love it. That’s as flirty as those drugs could be dirty. So now that you’re more aware of how close you dance to death in your everyday life, let me tell about some of my naughtier flirts with the grim reaper.

I sailed a yacht a few hundred miles offshore in some hairy weather, and we sure had enough problems to deal with that davy jones was damn near getting our rooms ready. I’ve run into the ocean to rescue a drowning man, when I got the feeling neither of us were going home that day. It’s enough to say I said my prayers in my head and did what I had to do, and both of us lived to tell the tale. I jumped out of a plane and gave a man I’d met 15 minutes earlier full control over my life and our parachute. A little ballsy for a 13 year old. I’ve slipped on a wet rock face and gone sliding towards the edge of a cliff, only to find a grip on a tree root just in the nick of time of time. That was a dangerous flirt indeed and I knew I was pushing my luck. I’ve sat motionless at the mercy of a herd of buffalo when one of their calves came between us and them, not sure whether they could smell my fear or hear my heart beating louder than a marching army, that was pushing the boundaries of flirting with death for sure. No telling what a wild animal might do. I’ve been held down under three consecutive waves after taking a fall while surfing and nearly become urchin food, seeing black and white and red spots and not knowing which way was up or down and felt fire in my lungs as the last of my oxygen was about to run out. I’ve swam into a swarm of hundreds of sharks all my size at least and lived to tell the tale.

Now, I haven’t told you any of this to brag, simply to aid your understanding of the concept of flirting with death, how far one might push it and my own perspective of it. I like danger, and I like to flirt. I chase a racing heartbeat. An adrenaline rush that comes from a near death experience. The real reason behind writing this passage was to explain, that although we all flirt with death occasionally, I believe that it’s necessary to do so. As often as you can, within your own reason of course. But to come that close to death is one sure way to remind yourself that you’re ALIVE.