Moat

I almost fell off a castle parapet into a moat late last night. No joke; it was really close.

This pleases me on multiple levels.

Whether the fall would have been fatal or not, at the moment when my foot went off the edge into the abyss, I wasn’t assuming a good result. Time slowed to crawl and I realized that this could be the end of it for me. Then my ass hit the stone of the edge and I managed not to go over.

What a feeling! A good near-death jolt every now and again is good for the psyche.

I think I was saved by all the years I spent fly fishing rivers of the Canadian Rockies’ east slope. Walking scree slopes and cut banks give you a good muscle memory for falling back onto your ass when a foot goes out.

Further, it is very pleasing to me that here in Japan they allow people to wander up onto a castle parapet without any barriers or safety considerations at all. If you want to be a dumbass and fall off the wall into a moat in the middle of the night, that’s your prerogative.

Finally, I think it is marvelous that I managed to almost kill myself in such an anachronistic manner.