Hey, watch this...

Those fateful words...last spoken by some moron who is going to do something to get themselves hurt. I have said it, numerous times. Getting cute with a firecracker and not throwing it quick enough, bouncing a rubber super ball off the ground and not getting out of the way fast enough when it bounced back up, riding no hands on a ten speed, downhill, with potholes in the road!!!

I remember one time when I was younger trying to impress the ladies at the swimming pool. We had a 3 meter board (9 feet) that I would do these great looking swan dives off of. So there are about 4 or 5 gals lounging by the swimming pool and I have been doing my best to splash them to get their attention but they were too far away. So me and my buddy start talking real loud, showing off our muscles, and we finally get their attention when I say, "Hey watch this great dive!!" Of course half the swimming pool at this point heard me and turned to watch the next Olympic hopeful perform some kind of great dive. So my plan was to do the run up as normal, leap as high as I could, spread my arms out like a swan and go in with no splash. Great plan huh? So I get a mighty run and about as I am to leap in the air my foot slips out from under me, I go paralell with the horizon and the upper half of my torso lands on the end of the board. Which proceeded to throw me straight up into the air still horizontal with the surface of the pool. Now remember the board is at 3 meters, and with the rebound off of the board I am around 5 meters (15 feet) now horizontally above the water. Well everyone who knows diving knows that you go into the water PERPENDICULAR, well I did not. My friend said when I hit the water horizontally it sounded like a thunder clap and the water displacement was significant at least. After I gained consciousness (I don't think I passed out but I wished I had) I came to the surface and made my way to the edge of the pool, OPPOSITE of where the girls were hoping that they did not see my display of ineptitude. As I pulled my reddened body (half from the impact of the water, remember I was 15 foot above the surface and the other half redened from embarassment) I realized that my hearing had been affected. That was until I realized the ringing in my ears was not from the dive, but from the laughter, the clapping and the people holding up 10 fingers making fun of me. I limped off to the locker room to compose myself and adress my injuries.

Back - repairable but bruised by the board...

Side - water bruised but no long lasting affects...

Head - intact...

Arms - intact...

Legs - intact...

Pride- .... totally destroyed.

It was at that time I remembered the sign at the bottom of the diving board. It said "slippery when wet, use caution...".

Why is it we ignore life's warning signs? If we would just listen and pay attention I think we would live a life without the pain that follows those fateful words. But many times pride clouds out judgement, it impares our vision and it causes pain. So the next time you begin to feel pride rise up, remember there is always pain that comes after the pride.