“Deep Sea Diver” by TolyanMy
My Real Memoir
I was busy, but not fulfilled. When I wasn’t writing, directing, acting, or falling in love, I felt empty, isolated. My big little academy The Newport Institute of the Arts had become a turnkey operation. I barely knew my teachers. They’d open up, teach their classes, slide student checks and an occasional friendly note under my door, then leave. And none of them knew I was in living in a dark windowless back room.
“Nothing is the total that I’ve come to know of late,” I wrote. “My heart it lies awanting in a rotting apple crate.”
Then an old friend showed up. At first, I was glad to have Rick’s company. He looked successful gliding up in his red Porsche Carrera. But he seemed edgy. And when he asked to temporarily “crash” in one of my back rooms, I knew something was up. Then he dragged in a box-full of brand name clothes. I demanded an explanation. Big store chains, he explained, factor “shrinkage” (theft) into their budgets. So, technically, these weren’t shoplifted–they were “already paid for.” While he was away, I spotted a notice from the Porsche dealer informing him they’d filed a stolen vehicle report on his unpaid rental car.
That evening, I ordered him to leave. But before I did, he mocked my efforts at pursuing success via a master’s degree. “Real money” came from risk-taking, he said. And so, he was thinking of joining an old high school friend who was making a fortune in Oregon.
“How?”
“As a deep-sea diver, salvaging lost cargo! It pays a big money because it’s so freaking dangerous. You’re down really deep, and if anything cuts off your air…”
I gasped.
“Exactly. Which is why you can’t do it alone. One guy goes under while the other guy stays ‘up top’ monitoring the air flow. You gotta have enough pressure or the ocean will crush you. And all the time you’re down there, you gotta keep checking your hose, making sure there’s no kinks. You gotta have new air constantly; you can’t keep breathing the same old air. You’re in an environment you weren’t made for.”
I never saw Rick again. But after he left, I kept thinking about his deep-sea diver story. I even dreamed about it: I’d find myself “in an environment I wasn’t made for,” with the words “you can’t do it alone” echoing through my head. I was, in fact, trying to do it alone, because there didn’t seem to be anyone “up top.” “And you gotta keep checking your hose,” Rick had said, “making sure there’s no kinks. You can’t keep breathing the same old air.”
I started standing in the dark of our little theatre/dance studio each night before bed. I’d stare toward the stage where several actors, including me, had once seen a series of inexplicable flashes of light. “Hello? Is anyone there,” I’d ask.
“Is there anyone up top?”
My Real Memoir is a series. To read the next one, click here.
That’s some profound insights from an unlikely source!
I was thinking the same, Abe. Isn’t it amazing where some of our most profound life lessons come from?
Thanks, Abe.
Wow, such a true thought and I love the metaphor of your title and your story.
I was nodding my head in agreement with your last lines.
Thank you, Karima.
You never disappoint me, Mitch! 😊
<3
What an insightful story even if it came from someone who didn’t make the connection. Gave me pause. Thanks!
My privilege, Martha.
What a great metaphor your rambunctious friend handed you! It reminds me once again that God can speak through any medium… even the most unlikely ones.
So true!
Great Story about Rick, and the insight
Thanks, L.G.
So, Mitch, assuming all your stories are true, have you had that much more interesting life than most people? Or are you just paying more attention to the people and goings-on around you?
It’s all in the works, “Seeking Divine Perspective!” I have read of many works here, and as “LIFE” lived, too. No matter what a dying patient told me (so many were mentally ill, too), I would say “I believe you.” And I meant it. I do have sympathy for humans as people…and Angels…and Demons and Devils, all.
And Christ is “HUMAN LIFE” ANIMATED by that HOLY SPIRIT – DIVINE, AND NEVER CESES TO SEEK GOD OUT!
Jesus was here FOR “LIFE!” Gentiles became his focus. It is ironic – now Christ Focuses on Christians….ONE WAY…but only one way, and never the only way. A name says a lot of SEEKING DIVINE PERSPECTIVE.
I USED to tell my hospice patients when they asked “What will my death be like…what will it look like.” I’d seen too many deaths to count at a certain point, so I develop a script: “There are 8 billion people on the planet, and there are as many deaths a people.” It’s a fairly universal principle, really. It applied to “LIVING” as well.
Who does GOD Save?
Those that fight for life. I was a “Pro-Life” hospice nurse. I didn’t push morphine unless they asked for it; or needed to breath better – but never to hasten death. And I gave informed choices, too. “This can actually diminish your appetite because you will sleep more and miss more meals, and you’ve already lost so much weight. Are ready to die?”
I was that kind of hospice nurse.
I AM ALWAYS PRO-LIFE, and I want you all to survive what is coming.
Sincerely,
B’David. Only me. Myself, and “I AM.”
Peace.
Annie, I believe I have been blessed/challenged with an interesting life. But God made me a storyteller as well and so, with the help of hindsight, I enjoy making sense of it all.
Lost underwater cargo? Your share explains what we mers have wondered.💦🥶
Is it not written in the Gospels of Jesus…OF HIMSELF…to have known MAN!
AND SO I TELL you…know yourself, and you will find that treasure. It is not always so deep. Have you ever swam in Kawaii? Just off the beach! TREASURES SO CLOSE…as close as life ITSELF. DEEPER is more dangerous. Angels fear to tread so deep, and so there ARE demons – GREATER COMPASSION to endure the pressures and pain of diving deep. SO MANY do not survive – because…well…NO ONE WOULD HELP. See? This was a very helpful post. INDEED. We know now TO STEP IN WHEN SOMEONE CALLS FOR HELP!
Amen
Bubbly Tipsy Mermaid, good to hear from you. It’s been a while.
Modern day parable!
True, Geoff, though it took me a long time to fully understand it.
How long did it take after that before you understood the parable? I know my development took years. This is a great story…even better made by reality. Well done!
I think at the time it hit me on a more unconscious level, Michelle. But it awakened a sense of being alone “down here,” and played a role in my search for God.
Man, the scuba diving is another kind of survival game
new air is key! 🙂
It is indeed, Ren.
antique works, where are you?
Oooh what happened to Rick?
He called me about 25 years later. Sadly, things had gone rather badly for him.
That is so sad. Guess he too couldn’t follow through with his own words of wisdom.
One of the memories I have is of a movie with an insane amount of foul language, deep sea diving school in the Navy. I can only imagine the fear that you would have with the weight of all that gear – and no air.
Some people…
Blessings.
And blessings to you, Pete.
This is a moving narrative, Mitch–more so because it’s your own.
It is a divine irony that God spoke to you through the story shared by your thieving friend. (The only person “up top” that he could know in his criminal state would be a look-out.)
Yet God used that provocative image to get you asking that vital question. And hallelujah, you would one day come to hear the answer in His own words.
By the way, my wife’s dad was a deep sea diver during WWII. He was one of the divers who helped recover the Philippine Treasury silver dumped in Manila Bay before the Japanese invasion: https://www.numismatistsofwisconsin.com/now-TheWWIIPhilippineSilverDump.html
Wow, what an experience. Were you able to hear about your father-in-law’s experience directly from him, Rob?
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