Wednesday, July 25, 2007 :::
Punching The Shark
I saw this posted online… read the full story here. But first a little commentary.
Is it at all possible that maybe we have been trained to think that normal human reactions of shock and terror are no longer socially permissible means of dealing with the sudden or the tragic? Are we so totally full of self-confidence and fear that we have to concoct assuring fantasies that we won’t go gentle into that good night, that we won’t go down without a fight?
When that guy “fought” the shark years back in Florida I was the first guy in line to hand him the Billy Bad Ass Award. Who wouldn’t… this guy punched and kicked a shark to the beach and rescued the severed and mangled limb of his nephew from its steely jaws or belly or whatever the hell sounds most dramatic. Wow! Say what you want about true heroics in our time but that is a HERO with extra pickles and cheese.
But now, current page of our current lives, our delicate sense of self must drudge through that high-wire juggling act of recognizing very real and very present danger and the critical ego maintenance that says we too, if faced with the circumstance or opportunity, will punch the shark.
Read on:
“The tranquil beauty of Hawaii transformed into a moment of terror for a vacationing Ohio man. Harvey Miller was snorkeling hoping to get a look at colorful sea life, instead he came face to face with a hungry shark. And what followed was a primal struggle between man and beast.
A dire warning was posted on the Oahu beach, but it came too late for 36-year-old Harvey Miller.
"I looked up and saw the snout of the shark. It bit me and spun me around," says Harvey Miller, Shark Victim.
The Ohio father of four was on vacation with his wife last week. He was snorkeling 150 yards from shore when an 8-foot tiger shark clamped its teeth into his leg.
Another tourist heard Miller's cries for help and rushed into the water.
"His first words were it broke my leg," says Ray Howell, Witness.
It's the first shark attack in nearly 50 years along this stretch of Hawaiian beach and it might have turned deadly if the victim hadn't started boxing the shark.
"I punched it twice in the body just below the dorsal fin," says Miller.
As the shark disappeared paramedics arrived. Miller's wife learned the news from a police officer.”
::: posted by Mike at 3:30 AM
