First I was given a quick lesson in the pool. Then, struggling to stay
erect under the weight of my oxygen tank, regulator, buoancy compensator,
and weight belt, I went clumping out to the dive boat. Sitting there on the
rocking dinghy, fondling my mask and fins like worry beads, I overheard
the certified divers asking each other insider questions:
Where were you certified? Where have you dived? Do you prefer
wrecks or reefs? Ever done any night diving? Are you into underwater
photography? Do you dive on a computer?
Whats your longest bottom time? Did you ever get the bends?
Why the italicized words? Those are scuba lingo. I now speak scuba. To
this day, whenever I meet divers, I have the right quetions to ask and
subjects to discuss. And the right ones to avoid. (Like how much I like
seafood. Thats like telling a cat lover how much you love tender barbecued
kitten.) I can now ask my new friends which of the scuba hot spots theyve
been toCozumel, Cayman, Cancun. Then, if I want to really show off, I ask
if theyve been to Truk Lagoon in the Far Pacific, the Great Barrier Reef in
Australia, or the Red Sea.
All the insider terms now roll comfortably off my tongue. Before my
Scramble Therapy experience Id be calling their beloved wrecks and reefs
sunken ships and coral. Unde standable words, but not scuba words. Not
insider words. Upon meeting a scuba diver, I probably would have asked,
Oh scuba diving. That must be interesting. Uh, arent you afraid of sharks?
Not a good way to get off on the right fin with a diver.
Think about it! Suppose at a dinner party, the table converstion turns to
scuba diving. If you, too, had done your one-timonly dive, youd ask your
diving dinner companion if he likes night diving or whether he prefers
diving on wrecks or reefs. (Hell never
Technique #38
Scramble Therapy
Once a month, scramble your life. Do something youd never dream of
doing. Participate in a sport, go to an exhibition, hear a lecture on
something totally out of your experience. You get 80 percent of the right
lingo and insider questions from just one exposure.
How to Be a Modern-Day Renaissance Man or Woman 149
believe it when you tell him the deepest water youve ever sumerged
yourself in is your own bathtub.)
ooja
(Ooja)
#1