Thoughts from a young man stuck on a rock in a river.

After being pounded against rocks in the rapids of the James River I found myself battered, bruised, and stranded.

Being young and blindly courageous affords a certain sense of invincibility, but sometimes we push this notion to limits as my friend Joey and I discovered in our failed attempt to reach a set of islands up river in what looked to be a more placid portion of the flow.

Now surrounded by the torrent of rapids with no life jacket it was a quick realization that there was no going back to the safety of the moment before we chose to dive in. We now were left with the dilemma of being separated as Joey waved to me from his new home on a great log a hundred yards upstream.

As I familiarized myself with the new surroundings I wondered what to do. Was there a responsibility to attempt the rescue of both of us since we jumped into the turbulence together, or was my own self-preservation more important?

Luckily, our friends called the fire department and we were rescued by a motorized raft from the consequence of our judgment. Amazingly the guys that saved us seemed pretty happy about the whole thing. Who wouldn't want to get out of the office on a sunny day to go boating?

Later as the events of the day sunk in I found the situation of being stuck on the rock was much like life. Sometimes we're farther down stuck on a log, other times we are waving from a safer more opulent rock with a plasma screen TV and a three car garage.

Regardless, the pursuit of future adventures often leaves others with the impossible task of navigating the rapids to catch up. In this sense do we have a responsibility to be patient and assist others at our personal risk? Perhaps we decide to float through the rapids of exploration alone, or more simply never attempt escape at all.

I have a feeling that I’ll get stranded a couple more times before I accept the answer to this.