I don't think fear of heights is properly characterized as a phobia. I think it lies more along the lines of "proper appreciation for gravity". It's really misnamed anyway - isn't it really a fear of falling to a painful and grizzly death? What could be more rational than that?

My life would probably have been a lot safer if I had that common sense response. Unfortunately for my insurance company I'm one of those freaks who likes falling. That tickling feeling you get when you look down from a height? The one that happens when your stomach is trying to invert itself and crawl behind your kidneys for protection? I love that feeling.

When I was eight or nine we lived in a house in Jersey that used to have a pool. All that was left of it was a triangle shaped deck on three posts. It was about fifty feet high from my vantage point (probably eight feet, realistically) on the ground and about a hundred feet high after climbing on top of it. Which I did very often as that effort was required in order to jump off of it.

I did the same thing in the woods nearby. I'd climb up trees as far as I could, wait until I gathered enough courage, and jump as high and far as I could.

I was that annoying kid who made the rope bridge on the nature walks swing wildly. I have no idea how I got to adulthood without any broken bones, either from impact or being beaten by woods-traipsing hippies. The latter was probably because most people require several minutes recovery gripping solid earth after a near-death bridge experience before their thoughts turn to bettering the world by removing certain threats from it.

At the community pool I was that kid who jumped off of the high platform. You know the one that kids would climb up after being goaded into it by their friends? The one where these extremely unhappy individuals would baby step to the edge of, look down and then visibly shrink to half their size while crawling back to the ladder enduring jests and catcalls from their erstwhile companions? Yeah that one. I never did figure out how to hit the water without enduring the aquatic slap of death but that didn't stop me from jumping.

Roller coasters, planes in severe turbulence, driving too fast down steep hills; these are a few of my favorite things. I'm not too worried about dying from old age as my natural propensities make this a highly unlikely event.

As soon as I can safely chalk up the expense to mid-life crisis I'll be jumping out of a plane.