Words can also motivate and inspire. As Loginus wrote in 1st Century BC: “For words finely used are in truth the very light of thought.”

WordsCanHeal.org was formed “to promote the value and practice of ethical speech in order to improve our democracy, build mutual respect, honor and dignity in our country.”

It was particularly targeted to the problem of bullying in schools. According to Irwin Katsof, co-executive director of WordsCanHeal.org, “In the post-Columbine era we need to reduce gossip and verbal abuse that is behind so much pain in our society, families and businesses in order to help heal our country.”

Bullying is not a problem confined to the United States. Australian researchers surveyed more than 2,600 secondary school students in Victoria, Australia, at age 13 and a year later. According to the researchers, about half reported being “teased, having rumors spread about them, being deliberately excluded from a group, or experiencing physical threats or violence.” In their report in the British Medical Journal, the authors reported that “two-thirds of those who were victimized were bullied more than once, and a history of bullying was found to be a good predictor for later self-reported depression and anxiety.”

The United States’ National Education Association says that 160,000 children stay home from school daily because of bullying. Up to 77 percent of middle and high school students in small Midwestern towns have been bullied according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The campaign to raise awareness of the problem of verbal abuse includes posters, national television commercials and printed material, including a book, The Words Can Heal Handbook: How Changing Your Words Can Transform Your Life and the Lives of Others by co-authors Chaim Feld, Irwin Katsof and Hilary Rich.

We can all participate in the campaign with a key component of the program that includes the WordsCanHeal pledge:
“I pledge to think more about the words I use. I will try to replace words that hurt with words that encourage, engage and enrich. I will try to see how gossip hurts people, including myself, and work to eliminate it from my life. I will not become discouraged when I am unable to choose words perfectly because making the world a better place is hard work. And I am helping to do that, one word at a time.”

It’s always been recognized that words have power as shown in these quotes from Words on Words by David Crystal & Hilary Crystal

Words, when well chosen, have so great a Force in them, that a Description often gives us more lively ideas than the Sight of Things themselves.
–Joseph Addison, 1712, “Secondary Pleasure of the Imagination: Consideration Limited to Liberature,” The Spectator

Freshness of words, simplicity of emotions,
If we lost these, would it not be as through
Blindness had stricken Fra Angelico,
Or an actor lost his power of voice and motion?
–Anna Akhmatova, 1917 in White Flock

Words –- so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become, in the hands of one who knows how to combine them!
–Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1841-52, American Notebooks

Words show up in the most unexpected places and in the most unusual ways. While walking through New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art in the spring of 2004, discovering what the latest and greatest trends were in the American art world, I saw words in a new way.

I’m looking for a magic moment…maybe an epiphany, but actually feel just a little overwhelmed. Then, I turn a corner and am delighted to find words among this sea of images. (Don’t get me wrong, I like to see the world through artists’ eyes, and images can transport me to new levels, but the Whitney Biennial is a lot to take in, particularly in one speedy trip.) Now I’m able to find focus in the five word paintings of accomplished and veteran conceptual artist Mel Bochner.

Each painting begins with one word in the upper left corner and then begins a journey through a thesaurus. The word “nothing” leads to “negation,” “goose egg,” etc. The other four words in the paintings include: “indifference,” “stupid, “meaningless,” and “mistake.” “Mistake” leads him to words such as “botch,” “boner,” “fumble,” “fluff,” “gaffe,” and “snafu.” All the words are painted in bright, candy colors and I was forced to really look at the words and contemplate their meanings.

I don’t think the words are chosen for any uplifting nature and I don’t even begin to try to interpret the message, if any, from the artist. I merely experience the paintings at face value and find them surprisingly powerful. But, words can do that.

For some, I imagine, the experience could be boring. Minimalist, conceptual art isn’t for everyone. But, I would suggest following John Cage’s advice: “If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring then eight. Then 16. Then 32. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.”

I enjoy conceptual art. Perhaps it’s because conceptual artists use language as a tool in their art. Words are their brushes. Their ideas are the artwork.

As I experience these words in a new environment and new way, I feel the power of art to slow down time. My senses are sharpened and putting any preconceived notions away and resisting the urge of my own ego to intellectualize the experience, I merely stand in front of the five paintings and contemplate the orange, blue, and red words: “Nothing,” “Indifference,” “Stupid,” “Meaningless,” and “Mistake.”

Find out more about the Whitney Biennial at whitney.org.

SCRABBLE is now one of the leading board games with a National Scrabble Association and tournaments played throughout the world. The Jerusalem Scrabble Club boasts that it is “probably the biggest Scrabble club in the world with an average weekly attendance of 55 players. Founded in 1983, its ranks today include about 100 active members.” Of Scrabble variants, duplicate tournament Scrabble is played in France. You can find those rules at La Federation Francaise de Scrabble . Tournament rules differ from the rules on the box. You can find those rules along with almost anything you wanted to know about SCRABBLE at The Scrabble FAQ and other crossword game resources.

The British are particularly fond of SCRABBLE and the British Scrabble Club recorded the highest score for a single play by Karl Khoshnaw. Khoshnaw played CAZIQUES for 392 points in Manchester, UK, in April 1982. Cathy Evans played QUETZALS for 365 points, achieving the highest word score in a tournament. She was from Redbridge, Essex, UK and was playing during the Letchworth Open Scrabble Tournament in November 1986.

If you need to upgrade your vocabulary skills for SCRABBLE, consult the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, or you can pump some “word” iron on the Web at a couple of sites. Vocabulary University, can help you increase your vocabulary for SATs, ACTs, etc. as well as a good game of SCRABBLE or you can go to Word Play, for links to about all you will ever need to know about words and the English language.

You can get hints, word lists, glossaries, etc. at ACE Word Finder, and the list of Scrabble 2-Letter Words.

More links at The Big Scrabble List at Board Game Central.

If just plain fun feels too dangerous or too lazy, you can always tell yourself that you are improving your child’s writing and reading for next year’s school term. And of course you will, because the more your children read and write, the better readers and writers they will become. However, remember the fun during summer. It’s okay if they would rather read the latest book of adventure instead of a classic or if they would rather keep a journal of their summer camp activities instead of writing an essay—it’s the writing and reading that count.

If your young children are struggling readers, you can find help at ReadingRockets.org, a Web site dedicated to helping young children learn to read. It was the first element of a national multimedia project geared to provide tried-and-tested tools to help kids read at an acceptable level. It was launched by WETA TV 26, a public broadcasting station serving Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

It is a wonderful place for parents and teachers to find reliable information about helping children read.

Some of the features of the Web site are practical tips and online forums for parents, teachers, tutors and child care providers; a guide of the best children’s books with a searchable database; milestones of language development; articles on the latest reading research and practice as well as informative interviews with nationally recognized reading experts.

The site also has a searchable state-by-state resource guide and feature articles with celebrities about how reading has affected their lives. The news section offers the latest articles from national media that keeps parents and educators informed about reading studies, updates of legislation affecting reading curriculum and what parents and community groups are doing to give their children a head start in reading.

Some of the most fun is the behind-the-scenes visits with noted children’s book authors, found in the Book Club section Your children may discover another dimension to reading by learning more about these authors. The Book Club section also provides many lists of recommended books, top ten books in categories and best-sellers.

How could your children miss summer fun while reading Click, Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Joffe Numeroff, Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer, Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say and Tuesday by David Wiesner?

You can also view specially produced television shows about reading online at the site also.

Elementary school students can practice their writing skills while still having fun. Sylvan Learning Center is contributing to the cause by offering a free online writing journal with decorative pages and suggested summertime writing topics. Each week the Center will post a new journal page featuring a suggested writing topic on their web site at http://www.educate.com/activities. Parents and children can go to the site, print out the new page and start writing. At the end of the summer children will have 13 unique stories about their summer, which can be bound by one of three journal covers, posted online for children to personalize and decorate. Sample journal topics for students include writing about their best friends on June 8, Best Friend Day, what they would do if they could go into outer space and where they would travel in a hot air balloon and what they would do.

“Summer break is a great time for children to relax and have fun. However, it is also a very important time for children to continue to practice key skills such as writing so they can make a strong start when school returns,” says Richard Bavaria, Ph.D., vice president of education for Sylvan Learning Center. “Sylvan Learning Center’s summer journal helps children practice their writing over the summer to retain what they learned during the school year, while having fun by writing about their favorite summer memories — a key aspect of summer learning.”

If your children don’t even need this structure, you can buy them a simple notebook, give them their book of the day, point them to their favorite shade tree with a glass of lemonade and let them unleash their imaginations. They can drink the lemonade, drink in a fictional world through the words of the book’s author and also just watch nature get along with the business of the day. Then, they can jot down a few words of their own. Ah, those lazy, hazy days of summer.

The “Dictionary Lady” put words in the hands of every third grader in South Carolina in 2001. What began as a one-woman project to deliver dictionaries to third graders attending school in three counties around Charleston, South Carolina, five years ago is now reaching students in at least 16 more states.

A request for school dictionaries in her local newspaper prompted Mary French to action, resulting in more than 300,000 dictionaries to be donated to date to third-grade students through her program. Her call to action continues to win converts and last year, the Dictionary Project raised the funds to buy a dictionary for every South Carolinian third grader. According to the Dictionary Project’s Web site, volunteers have started projects in California, Hawaii, Virginia, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, Delaware, Maryland, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Vermont and Pennsylvania.

French has targeted third graders since it is a time for students to begin independent work. In a program introduction at the Web site, it is stated: “Students benefit from an increased self-reliance and resourcefulness inspired by the maxim ‘look it up.’…The program is an opportunity for children to expand their vocabulary and for many to actually own a dictionary. A strong vocabulary is an essential tool for gaining knowledge. The limits of an individual’s language are the limits of his world.”

If you are interested in beginning this project in your school district or state, take a look at the Dictionary Project Start-Up Kit. It gives you the cost of the dictionaries and a sample letter to send to school district superintendents to introduce the project as well as ask for approval. French has also listed a suggested plan of action from initial idea to putting the dictionaries into the students’ hands to thank-you notes and media coverage.

By giving the gift of words to all these students, Mary French most certainly must be named in the “Word Hall of Fame” which should exist if it doesn’t. As South Carolina Post and Courier reporter Catherine Lawrence quipped she is an “academic Santa Claus.” As each third-grader opens his or her dictionary for the first time and discovers the power and magic of the language, it is our only hope that the pages become dog-eared as the years pass. And most likely, even as many of those students buy their own, more complete, dictionaries, it is also most likely that they hang on to that very first dictionary; given to them by someone who wasn’t daunted by the sheer enormity of her undertaking. But understood that by giving out words in this manner she was building a strong foundation for the students as well as our country’s future.

Yosa Buson, a Japanese haiku poet and artist, wrote this “aha” moment captured in three lines. He could have been writing about a teeth-gritting Santa Ana wind in the San Fernando Valley or a Kansas summer evening after chasing fireflies. Or maybe he was talking about a sushi master smoking a cigarette in the alley behind his restaurant in October. Maybe none of those since he was born in 1716 and died in 1783. However, he does seize the universal glimpse. He was one of the great haiku masters, along with Basho, Issa and Shiki.

Haiku is a traditional Japanese verse form expressing a single emotion or idea with 17 syllables. These syllables are arranged in lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. Sometimes. Basho’s motto was “learn the rules, and then forget them.” Many languages don’t lend themselves to the metrical break of 5, 7 and 5 and some don’t work with the 17 syllables. And Japanese haiku, when translated, doesn’t maintain this form either. Traditionally, haiku should also contain a seasonal reference and imply a hidden, deeper meaning behind seemingly common words. Simple words in haiku do not convey cliches, but target an emotion or idea with new vision.

The Santohka school of haiku eliminates the 5, 7, 5 form and presents a singular image in a very short form. American haiku uses this often.

You need to see, smell, taste, touch or feel haiku. When writing haiku, use tangible images, no abstract motifs of love, lust, glory – all those unwieldy Western themes. Shun adverbs. Many haiku writers consult “kigo” lists, lists of season words. “Sajikis” or season word reference books help Japanese writers by providing thousands of entries for each season. In many ways, haiku is drawing a picture or stroking a cat with words. Feel it, don’t think it.

Issa fathered his first five children after fifty years of age. After his last child had died, he wrote:

World like a dewdrop
though it’s only a dewdrop
even so, even so

Another selection from “Osaka Asahi” published in 1929.

From infant bathtubstyle
to burial tub changing
This utter nonsense

Basho was the pseudonym of Matsuo Munefusa, considered to be the finest writer of Japanese haiku during its beginning years. He was also a samurai who adopted the name Basho, “banana tree”, around 1681 after moving into a hut next to a banana tree. At his death, he was the haiku teacher to 2,000 people. His last written haiku follows.

Fallen sick on a journey
In dreams I run wildly
Over a withered moon

Two recommended books for study of haiku are The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson and Issa (Essential Poets, Vol. 20), translated and published by Robert Haas, a U.S. poet laureate and Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share and Teach Haiku by William J. Higginson and William S. Higginson. Some haiku journals to consider are “Frogpond,” “Modern Haiku,” “South by Southwest” published by Red Moon Press, “Tundra,” “Black Bough,” “HWUP!,” and “Mayfly.”

In Ostuji hairon-shuu (Otsufi’s collected essays on haiku theory) edited by Toyo Yoshida, 5th edition. Tokyo: Kaede Shobo, 1947, Otsuji (Seki Osuga) writes: “If one does not grasp something – something which does not merely touch us through our senses but contacts the life within and has the dynamic form of nature – no matter how cunningly we form our words, they will give only a hollow sound. Those who compose haiku without grasping anything are merely exercising their ingenuity. The ingenious become only selectors of words and cannot create new experiences from themselves.”

If haiku seems too remote or objective, the tanka form of Japanese poetry provides a more personal or romantic vehicle. In feudal Japan, all courtiers were required to learn how to compose tanka. Haiku authority Jane Reinhold reports that “in the 9th – 12th centuries when tanka was so fashionable, poets competing in contests revived an old Chinese form by linking tanka poems together in a novel way. The poem was ‘broken’ in half so one author wrote the 5-7-5 part and another responded and finished the poem by adding his (mostly men did this though it was first done by a woman) 7 – 7 part. Instead of stoppng there, someone else wrote a new 5-7-5 poem to ‘answer’ to the previous 7-7 link and they named the genre renga – meaning linked elegance. This proved to be so much fun, poets were soon writing poems of 1,000 and even 10,000 links.”

More writers are experimenting with the tanka form now. Whether writing or experiencing any of these forms, haiku, tanka or renga, it helps to take them in directly. It is said that 90 percent of a good haiku can be understood, but it is an exceptional haiku if half of it can be understood. The last word should come from Issi.

A sudden shower falls
and naked I am riding
on a naked horse

Some of the better sites to learn more about haiku, tanka, etc. follow:

The Haiku Society of America

Want fries with those haiku?

The Shiki Internet Haiku Salon

Sangeet’s Haiku and Poetry Corner

Haiku

Haiku for People

History of Haiku

American Tanka

The Haiku Guy

Read an interesting analysis of haiku

Word nerds, word lovers, word enthusiasts—whatever you call yourselves, you’ll love this game. But, I suppose I shouldn’t make those blanket statements so at least I’m pretty sure you will. You do owe it to yourself to read on and find out more about the games. Bethump’d with Words® is actually a series of games—Senior, Voyager and the Book Edition. The Senior Edition, released in 1996, features 1,000 questions from more than 30 categories for teen through adults. The categories cover the origins, history and evolution of English. Released in September 2001, the Voyager Edition, also for teens through adult, contains 1,200 questions from more than 40 linguistic and etymological categories. Both the Voyager and Book Editions serve as supplemental question sets.

The games are produced by Mamopalire, Inc. in Vermont and you can read more about them at the Bethump’d website at www.bethumpd.com.

To get a sense of the creators’ commitment to language, read this from Covey MacGregor’s introduction in the Book Edition: “Speakers of English rarely profess their love of the language with the emotion or terms used by speakers of other languages. Yet love is there…It’s an affection, however, with a revealing and peculiar difference. While the French, for example, are moved to rapture by the mellifluous sounds and poetic rhythms of their language—and, predictably, react with disdain when the mood’s disrupted by ‘harsh’ foreign entities—speakers of English love words: individual words, French words, German words, Japanese words, Yiddish words, Russian words, Melanesian words, Spanish words, indeed any and all  words. In sum, ‘English’ is less the name for a clearly defined language than for an obsessive attitude toward the fundamental tools of language…”

I think there is absolute truth in that statement. The English language is this wonderful melting pot and continues to evolve. And, although, that makes it frustrating for those learning the language; it also makes it tremendously exciting. It’s just so alive. And I love words.

MacGregor continues to write in the introduction: “Bethump’d with Words is an attempt to demonstrate… why Shakespeare’s legacy has endured, why so many of us, his linguistic heirs, are similarly afflicted with logophilia. Instead of games that are played with  words, it presents games that are about  words. The focus is on the aspects of everyday words, in contrast to the obscure, that together convey the character and comprise the story of English. To a degree, it is an exposé of the factors that have contributed to English’s hybrid vigor.” 

This is a wonderful way to explore where our words came from and to show how alive language is. I was at a seminar recently and the instructor stated that approximately 10,000 words were added to last year’s Webster’s dictionary. It was a refresher course in grammar and proofreading and many attending were in the business world and just trying to make sure their business communications presented them and their companies in the best light possible. 

During the day I was again reminded about the dynamics of the language and how much is not necessarily set in stone. Our language lives in an environment of shifting sand and we have to be lifelong learners to keep up. 

This game is one way to do so. It is a great way for people from all generations to come together and celebrate the world of words. In fact, the company states that the game’s goal is to “trigger sustained interest in words because English is changing so rapidly that continued literacy is an educational need.” 

According to the company, Games Magazine has named it a best new word game and it was on a top 10 list from the Chicago Tribune.

Teachers and homeschoolers will find it useful as will those students working to better their chances on the SAT’s verbal section. 

Some of the categories covered include: borrowed words; idioms; accents; homonyms, homophones, and homographs; spoonerisms; Americanisms, Australianism, Briticisms and Canadianisms; word evolutions; word origins; history and quotations; acronyms and letter words; slang; euphemisms and jargon; holorimic phrases; calques; dinosaur words; eponyms; sexist English; nicknames; and portmanteau words.

Some sample questions from the teens to adult edition:

• Accents What do Australians mean when they make a statement that sounds like: “Scona rine”?
• Eponyms In 1947, what bathing suit did the French name after an atoll in the Marshall Islands because its impact on viewers was that of an atomic bomb?
• Portmanteau Words What word did Lewis coin in 1871 by blending the words chuckle and snort?
• Borrowed Words What common name for peanut did English borrow from the African Bantu language?
• History What famous lexicographer quite seriously lobbied Congress to enforce the spelling of tough as tuf and women as wimmen?

According to Mamopalire, ESL educators around the world find the games very helpful for those who are learning English as a second language.

Since I originally posted this article at Suite101.com years ago, I checked on the Web site link to make sure it still worked and discovered that the game’s publisher is going out of business and at this time is selling it and other games at a 50% discount.

“We’ve already written about both magazine and book publishers for the content-producing masses, but now a wiki-like site aims to leverage the wisdom of the crowds to create, rate and elevate into publication the best community-sourced content.

Founded last year, Maryland-based WEbook.com is a free online publishing platform that allows writers, editors, reviewers, illustrators and others to join forces to create great works of fiction and non-fiction, thrillers and essays, short stories, children’s books and more.”

The first public parachute jump by Louis-Sébastien Lenormand in Montpellier, France, on December 26, 1783.

Slang. I’ve been thinking about slang words lately. Also, hip words and words of hype. I’ve been searching for Web sites focusing on English slang and then perhaps I’ll move on to slang in other languages. I’m not sure where this journey will take me. Anyway, I started thinking about the slang phrase of “far out.” I used it often when I was younger. According to Jonathon Green’s Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, far out was the “mental ‘space’ entered under the influences of hallucinogenics” and was first used in the San Francisco Comic Book published by Rip Off Press in 1970.

If you would like another definition of “far out” as well as definitions for other slang terms, go to Urban Dictionary or The Language of the Hip.

Its meaning expanded to amazing! remarkable! wonderful! Contemplating this, I remembered an article I wrote while in college. In it I think is my definition of “far out.” A long definition, but an accurate one. I have resisted editing it at all because it captures my 20-year-old self and a true experience of what “far out” was to me at that time.

First jump “far out” from Kansas State Collegian, Friday, November 3, 1972

“Arch 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000,” Gary Hine, recited as he demonstrated the correct way to exit a plane.

At my first training session with the K-State Sports Parachute Club, I looked around at the other members intently watching Hine. They were normal people just like those I’d seen on campus. What made them want to leap from a perfectly good plane 2800 feet above the ground?

I began to wonder what made me want to float to earth suspended from a canopy. There are easier ways of researching stories. Why get first-hand knowledge when several interviews could serve the purpose?

Basically, I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of falling freely through the air. Also, getting a good description of a person’s first jump is difficult.

People’s eyes glaze and rapt expressions spread over their faces: “Wow, it was far out!”, they exclaim. Try writing an article based on that.

So I joined the Parachute Club. Gary and Dale Boyer instructed my group. At our first training session, they explained parts of the parachute, canopy control, landing and exiting. They also discussed use of the reserve parachute.

My interest sharpened when they began talking about the reserve chute. In case of a malfunction, the reserve is used. A licensed rigger re-packs a reserve every 60 days as a precaution against rotting of the chute. But because parachutes are made of nylon, deterioration is unusual.

Dale and Gary made no false promises. As the Murphy law states, “If it can happen, it will and at the worst possible time.”

The next evening, we met again. Emergency procedures were explained at this session. There are several types of malfunctions – a streamer, Mae West, and a total. Generally, the same procedure is used in all cases – look at the reserve ripcord – and pull it.

Once your camopy is inflated, check it for holes. If you think they are big enough to make a difference, pull your reserve; the holes have to fairly large and in vital positions to be a hazard. But, as we were cautioned, “When in doubt, get it out.”
After one more training session, I was ready. The Friday night before my jump my mind was a tangle of procedures and precautions. I tried to imagine how it would feel as I jumped from the plane.

I drove into Herrington Field just in time to see Dale descending from the sky. I had never seen anything like it; a lone man gravitating toward earth, but controlling where he was to land.

Inside the packing building, members were efficiently bundling parachutes. Dedicated to sky-diving, these persons re-pack for another jump as soon as they return to earth. Since I will pack my own chute eventually. I watched closely.

Before jumping, I went through practical training. Gary took another student and me outside and we practiced landing falls. Landing position is feet together, knees slightly bent and arms up with elbows tucked in toward the body. You must fall to the side as smoothly as possible. We then went to the plane and practiced exits.
When we returned, John Schuman, third-year member, told us to get ready. John was our jumpmaster; he ‘spotted’ our position and gave us the jump orders.

We put on our parachute rigs. Then John showed us an area map of the general vicinity where we were to land. Schuman’s confidence and enthusiasm helped me relax. But when he kept asking how I felt, I began to wonder what my facial expression conveyed. Did I look that unsure of myself?

He checked our rigs, and John told Jane Cramer, another student, that she would be first jumper because “she looked like she had a weaker will.” I was congratulating myself on my confident appearance when he turned and said, “You’ll be next.”

Three students, a jump-master and a pilot entered the plane. Twenty-eight hundred feet later, Schuman hooked Jane’s static line which would automatically pull the ripcord. He opened the door.

Wind rushed in with terrific force and I realized I would exit through that same door. Jane followed John’s orders and I looked out the side window and saw her canopy open fully.

After a few minutes, John looked at me and I moved forward in the kneeling position. He attached my static line. I subdued any feelings of dread or panic as I looked out the door. John ordered me to get my feet out. I was in an odd position – sitting in the doorway of a plane, legs dangling 2800 feet above the ground.

The order to “get out” was given. With the plane’s prop blast and the wind pressure, I was sure there would be no way for my body to move onto the wing strut. Placing my foot on the step, I pulled myself out. I tightly gripped the iron rod with both hands and assumed a rather unorthodox squatting position. I tried to pull myself up, but the wind was too strong.

John yelled the final order, “Go” – and I went. I simply let go and the plane and I flew our own separate ways. As I fell backwards, John jerked my static line. He short-lines Jane’s, also, since we both were unstable exiting. Then I saw my canopy open. My fall toward earth was slowed with a slight jolt.

A beautifully rounded canopy filled with air above me. I was drifting toward earth through calm and quiet. I reached for the toggles controlling the canopy and experimented.

I pulled down the right toggle and the canopy turned a complete circle. I saw all the landmarks and knew my position from the airstrip.

Below tiny figures moved about. Where had all the people come from? But they weren’t people, they were cattle! Not particularly wanting to make a feedlot landing, I quickly changed course.

I saw a field and decided it would make the easiest landing. As the green rushed toward me, I realized it was milo. But it was too late to change. So I concentrated on landing position. My feet were definitely together and I descended form the sky into a sea of green. Contact with ground was fast and stinging.

I had landed correctly and had no broken bones. Dazed, I got up and looked at the disaster I had created. Suspension lines hung from milo stalks and the canopy draped over them. There wasn’t anyway I could field pack this mess.

I bundled it up and trudged out of the field, half-expecting to see some distraught farmer coming after me with a damage suit. But, no, Gary was waiting with his car so I didn’t have to walk back.

Then I realized this immense sense of accomplishment. I now understood why parachute club members live for week-ends, and why John once made 22 jumps in a week. I also knew why I had been smiling since I had left the plane.

How was my first parachute jump? “Wow, it was far out!”