Saturday, June 6, 2015

River Awareness, or Mercy ?

Columbus Ga was recently shocked with a very tragic loss at the mercy of the Chattahoochee. Now as a former raft-guide-trainee this hit a very ironic emotional spot in my heart.  

I grew up on the Chattahoochee , some of my earliest memories are me & my best friends sneaking out on the rocks in the middle of the night, during low-water ( "low-tide" is frowned upon among raft guides as there are no "tides" at a river -_- , stupid Ikr) . Before they tore down the old damn & created the level 4 white waters. 
I also remember the thrill of rushing back to shore when they released the damn up-river, so that we didn't get swept away by the current. That was dangerous enough as is. So when they added rocks & removed rocks for white-water, I knew it was intense. 

However, when I saw they were accepting trainees to be raft guides for only a one time fee of $25, I signed up immediately. 
I didn't know what to expect, I just knew I wanted to experience the river from a first-person view. 
Training was intense, every time we flipped out the raft you would take in mouthfuls of water. One of the key elements is to remain calm & try not to breath until you're out of the rapid . 
If you have a good raft guide , you're chances of not flipping are highly increased. But there are those runs where everyone just fails. 
I was guiding the raft training once & it flipped, & one of my fellow trainees was holding onto my raft . When guiding only the raft guide is supposed to hold onto the raft & flip it back upright. While he was holding on, he busted his knee. 
It was bad, he needed stitches. After we all got back in the raft we saw he had a deep 2 inch gash on his right knee. Now me being the guide, I couldn't help but feel responsible. I don't ever want to cause anyone pain. I don't ever want to have the responsibility of someone's life in my hands just so they can get a thrill. It was after that trip that I realized, no matter what, you're at the mercy of the river. There is no guarantee that you will make it down safely. The river is very unpredictable & the water flow is Always changing. 
While I support the economy of Columbus growing, personally, I won't be white water rafting anymore just because the number of fatalities on that very stretch.


One easy way to tell if someone's lying...

YOURE A LIAR!

Doesn't it suck just reading that ?
No one wants to be a liar. So what do we do about it? Lie.

I've never told a lie my whole life. . . Could you tell if I was lying? Obviously, because EVERYONE lies. It's in our human nature. & if you say "I've never lied" , well you're more contradicting then a starburst commercial because that would be you lying to yourself, also completely natural. But the question remains, why lie? Why do we try to convince ourselves the pimple on our face isn't that noticeable, when it clearly sticks out further than your nose ?

My answer may shock you.

I think we lie to create a faux-world . A heaven-on-earth. 

You're not proud of throwing paper on the school-bus/ so say you didn't do it(lie)

You're not proud of instigating a fight/ so you say you didn't mean it in a harmful way(lie) 

You don't want to go to church/ So you tell yourself you don't have anything to wear(lie)

You don't want to appear rude/So you tell your friend you're on the way when you're still on the couch watching t.v.

We always lie, just to make things seem better for ourselves.

 Even if you claim you lie to not hurt someone,to save them, you're hurting them more by denying them the inevitable truth. 

More importantly , how can we tell if someone's lying 

Well, first you must know what a lie looks like. A lie doesn't have a physical appearance, our lies lay in our emotions. Some people may think they're good at lying because they're good at hiding their emotions. On the contrary these are the easiest people to decipher. 
When you lie it forces added stress on your brain because you have to think about what your lying about/ and talk at the same time. While a truthful response comes naturally . Hence the first & MOST important step of lie detection. 

1.) get your subject to lie & observe their actions/vocal tone CAREFULLY. 


How can you willingly get someone to lie? Ask them a question no one would tell the truth about . 
Ex"have you ever lied to any person of authority?"
Ex"have you ever hurt someone out of revenge?"

You might notice a change in someones tone, A sudden look to the left, A scratch on the ear,  anything. People have certain self-assuring rituals they do when they lie as a means of re-assuring themselves to be confident. Once you find their "tick" each like will be plain as day.