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Many languages have contributed to the spoken
and written English. Greek.
Latin. Hebrew.
French. German.
The prefix of phobia was donated by the Greeks.
It’s simple to define phobia as a fear or aversion.
You can go further by calling it an irrational fear of a specific
object or situation. It’s
an anxiety disorder thought to be associated with a repressed or
forgotten experience. Maybe the most common is claustrophobia, fear of
being in an enclosed place. Phobias
range from nyctophobia (fear of the dark) to zoophobia (fear of
animals). It’s hard for me to trace back my discomfort
with heights, or acrophobia. When
I was a child, I would climb our apple tree to the highest limb strong
enough to support me. With
my trusty telescope, I went out the bathroom window of my
grandmother’s home to stand on the edge of the roof some 30 feet above
the backyard. My first trip in a plane was a reluctant one.
A friend wanted me to ride in his Piper Cub.
I agreed only on the provision that he would land immediately if
I asked him. As soon as the
ground dropped away, I asked him to land.
He explained he had to gain altitude and circle to come back for
a landing. As we got
higher, I said to forget going back.
It was fun. We had
several hours of delightful flying. First time I really recall a problem with
heights was on a National Guard anti-aircraft firing range at Rehoboth
Beach, Del. There was a
wooden tower probably 50 feet high, though it seems higher in my memory.
An open wooden ladder was on the side.
I climbed it with no problems.
Then I began thinking about how I would get down to the earth
which seemed miles below me. I
had to force myself to get back on the ladder and go down.
Maybe that was the first touch of acrophobia. When I was in service in Germany, a friend and I
climbed the cathedral in Ulm. Founded
in 1377, it reaches 528 feet above the city.
The bells seemed as large as an automobile hanging down. We hurried past it to be safe if the hour began to strike.
On top we looked down uncomfortably to the people who looked like
ants below. We didn’t
stay long. Even though I flew often, I began feeling a
discomfort even looking down from the window of a tall building. Nightmares left me on rooftops of buildings in the clouds
where I would cling to anything fixed, or on a mountain with a perilous
road for me to drive down with an oversize car. The taint of acrophobia even made me reluctant
to fly. When a friend
needed me to take my computer from Pompano Beach, Fla., to Philadelphia
for some work, I drove. How do you cure a phobia? Best wisdom is to understand it and face it.
But I had no desire to stand on the ledge of a tall building
while saying, “It doesn’t bother me. I’m not afraid.” Oddly enough the treatment came recently with a
helicopter at our VFW post. Rick
Davis set up shop with his Fair Copters during the annual Riverbend
festivity. He used a few
parking spaces at our post for picking up passengers and donated a
percentage to our us. When people asked me if I were going to ride it,
I said yes—“later.” I
didn’t really intend to. My
acrophobia had control. Kim
Harpe and Bart Crattie talked me into it. The lift off was so different from a standard
aircraft gaining speed on a runway to begin flight.
The copter was like being on an elevator that lifted from the
pavement in a weaving fashion. It
didn’t bother me to see the earth and people diminishing in size as we
climbed to a thousand feet above the bank of the Tennessee River. It was obvious Rick knew what he was doing and I
felt secure in his ability. We
took a look at the thousands at Ross’s Landing enjoying the music.
When the wind rocked the helicopter, I heard a sigh from Kim.
Didn’t bother me. I enjoyed it so much that I went with Rick again
Saturday to shoot some photos of the Riverbend crowd. Maybe riding in the Fair Copter didn’t cure my
acrophobia and nightmares completely.
I don’t plan to walk a tight rope between two tall buildings. But any dreams now of flying or heights are pleasant ones.
And any time Rick has his Fair Copter around with a vacant seat,
I’m ready to go. (For a look at Chattanooga and Riverbend from the air, take a look at: http://faircopters.com/riverbend.htm)
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