You're really clutching at straws, "Well clutching at straws saved my life once!
By urbandekay
@urbandekay (18278)
February 27, 2013 1:08pm CST
Sometimes you just have to clutch at straws and sometimes it works, so don't be put off.
I found myself walking along a beach in Southern Scotland, I had ridden a motorcycle along the coast road from Castle Douglas where I was staying. I had an impulse to climb the cliff that rose up from the beach. So, I stood and studied it for a while, planning my route and then began to climb.
Anyway, at the top of the cliff it bulged out, the bulge being covered with read like plants but I could see hand holds between the vegetation so I pressed on as I got half way round the bulge the rock became fragile, rotten even and came away in my hands.
Well I don't mind saying I felt a little concerned, I can't remember if it was a sandy of rocky beach and it wasn't a huge drop somewhere between 30 and 50 feet as I recall but that is far enough.
So, unable to get a hand hold I tried to hold on to the vegetation but as fast as I clutched at it, it would come away in my hand. Well now my concern was turned to something more akin to panic. For what seemed like forever I grabbed handful after handful of reeds and to my surprise and relief, slowly inch by desperate inch I edged up the cliff until, exhausted I was able to pull my upper body over the top and lay there panting.
Never, dismiss the power of clutching at straws
all the best, urban
1 person likes this
6 responses
@urbandekay (18278)
•
28 Feb 13
Even Luther saw the wisdom of clutching that particular straw after a while
all the best, urban
@urbandekay (18278)
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28 Feb 13
I agree; the arguments against him being Jesus' brother are weak and motivated, in my opinion, by some notion of Mary's 'purity' and one might speculate further as to the motivation for that abhorrent version of 'purity.' The evidence for it includes the Ossery of James
all the best, urban
@JohnRok1 (2051)
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28 Feb 13
So I heard. Were I a real scholar, I'd have had chapter and verse for it before ever writing the comment above. Thankfully, however, the internet (containing the fruits of other researchers' researches) has come to my rescue, http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?itemid=1892. A very useful thing, the internet, but, of course, like all fallible inventions of men, it has its dangers.
I'm convinced that James of the Epistle is James the Lord's brother. No other New Testament figure, except the Lord Jesus Himself, shows the bold, polemic rapier ironic skill displayed in James 2:19 (Perhaps I should say, "etc.").
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
27 Feb 13
This must be the longest post you have made urban and very interesting. What an adventure and as you said - literally clutching at straws.I think that I have clutched at straws for most of my life really and hung on for dear life - as the saying goes. But literally? No, not literally. I give thanks that you are alive to tell the tale, as it were. B;lessings
@urbandekay (18278)
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27 Feb 13
It is sometimes funny how when your back's against the wall some slight chance or desperate measure can be the thing that saves you
all the best, urban
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
28 Feb 13
You expressed this better than I could. Still having thought problems where I cannot remember the right word since surgery but it is getting better, thank God
@topffer (42156)
• France
27 Feb 13
It was probably a horrible moment, because you have had the time to think about it and to start to panic. I had once a problem with a badly tied harness when I was working at the top of a cliff. I had the reflex to hold, not a straw but a root of a tree when I started to fall, and I waited there until somebody sent me a rope, but I did not panicked this time. I panicked once in a cave : I was not secured and thought a moment that I would die if I was falling -- there was 50 to 60 feet before the ground --, and then I have been completely paralyzed by panic during 2 or 3 minutes. It was a horrible feeling, and I understand what happened to you. You can thank the reeds
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.@urbandekay (18278)
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27 Feb 13
Yes indeed, I would have been in dire trouble without those reeds
all the best, urban
1 person likes this
@changjiangzhibin89 (16771)
• China
28 Feb 13
It was really a climbing that was fraught with adventures.Didn't you become really scared after it was all over? Obviously The rock had been weathered severely and something terrible would happen at any time.I guess the reed like plant was cogon and the like,because reed can only grow in shallow water.
