So there we were, at the base of Smalls Falls near Rangeley, Maine so John could make photos of a lovely waterfall. I noticed the two girls on the top left and wondered what they were doing and how they’d get to a place of swimmable water from their high and narrow rock perch.
Suddenly a body came flying down from the rocks above! I was stunned, my heart lurching, thinking at first that an emergency was unfolding. Then another body followed–we realized then that the male counterparts to those teenage girls were jumping off the rocks and plummeting into a pool we could not see–but that was apparently deep enough for a safe landing. The boys were dropping about 30 feet! Each time one jumped, my breath caught as I watched and tried to imagine the exhiliration they must be experiencing.
As John wrote in the email with those photos attached, “I guess they weren’t dying because they did it over and over.”
Youth! Bravery! Invincibility!
