[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

all bravado and machismo aside, even as a 9 year old boy that shit struck me as in poor taste

oh, that's the other thing-- death can strike terror in a 9 year old but after you see enough deaths you're like "whatever, next"

once i read in an alan watts book that there was this group of chinese people in an airplane (some war or something) and that they gambled at cards-- the loser had to jump out of a plane.

death is by no means something i see as desirable, and i wouldn't gamble my life in a card game (it's just retarded, or one had to be bored to an incomprehensible degree), but however unpleasant, the death of an individual is not a big deal when you consider everyone dies anyway-- in the case of your pilot, he could have slipped in the shower & crack his skull or he could have died alone in some horrible nursing home. at least he died doing what he loved.

i do understand your shock during childhood though. finding death at the circus can be a brutal awakening.