rich on a cliff.
It's a 40 foot jump off of a rock into the aqua ocean below.
We were debating whether or not we were going to do it, staring at the rock from the shoreline, and everyone started to talk about a guy who almost jumped and then sat down. He was sitting there for a long time. We watched him.
My daughter and son and I eventually decided to jump. We made our way up the rock and met the man's son. We found out his name was Rich. His entire family had jumped but not Rich. They were hoping he would go soon. In fact, everyone was encouraging him to jump. He didn't.
Kids were jumping. We hesitated, but everyone said "You just have to jump. Can't think about it."
We jumped. It was magical.
From below we started a chant for Rich to jump. Another man offered to film the whole thing and email it to Rich. Hundreds of people were eventually chanting "Rich, Rich, Rich" and he didn't jump.
We talked to his wife and his daughters. Rich was an engineer. Afraid of nothing. They couldn't understand what happened to him. Rich was a great swimmer. He worked on a bridge that was hundreds of feet high - never afraid of heights .
It was in his head.
We climbed the rock again. "Rich, you gotta jump. Stop thinking about it. Let's do this. People of all ages, religions, races, telling Rich to jump. Nothing negative was said to Rich. It was cool to see. But it wasn't working.
We jumped again.
We chanted again.
We kept waiting.
We eventually saw Rich walk off the rock.
Later, we saw him in town. I went up to him and said "Rich! The guy from the rock! Did you ever jump?"
"No," he answered.
"Well," I said. "Kudos for resisting all that peer pressure. That was impressive."
He laughed.
I think he wished he had jumped.
But he had waited too long. He had thought about it too much. He had hesitated and analyzed and sat there imagining every single possibility and those thoughts eventually paralyzed him. Like they always do.
Sometimes, you just have to stop thinking, get off your butt, and jump.
So, jump!