Immersion

One hot Georgia day, my Uncle Buddy set out to prove that holding your breath could not make you pass out. He was dramatic. He decided to prove his hypothesis on the high dive at the Cedartown pool. When he missed the water all together, the impact of ten-year-old head on concrete must have ended his aspirations to become a scientist. But he made a fine religion professor.


I guess I was holding my breath, too, as I dove into the pool of my family history in Macon. But fortunately I didn't land on concrete.

It was an intense day.

I came back with nearly 1,000 copied pages and 6 hours of stories on tape to transcribe. Every minute I was there, I was either listening as hard as I could, intently reading and looking through files, or madly copying everything that felt important before my time ran out. I was hoping to come home with more of a sense of the history, the characters, the time line. My immersion experience left me dripping with all of it.

I drove away from Macon with tears streaming.