Ryan Roberts - Cave Diving For Dummies

"Listen, I'm not exactly the sharpest lightbulb in the toolbox, but at least I'm not a cave diver."

~ Me

    Recently, my Youtube has decided to recommend videos related to cave diving. Cave divers dying to be specific. And every time I find one, I take out my earbuds and play it for myself and my roommate to complain about the absolute idiocy of people who willingly shove themselves into claustrophobic tunnels barely wide enough to fit a human just to see some rocks hanging from the ceiling. Either that, or the dumber idiots that shove themselves into dark, water filled tunnels with barely enough air to make it out alive. Somehow, I'm always surprised with the method that the degenerates get stuck/get themselves killed or I'm surprised that they died in the first place. 

    But all of this got me thinking about the most memorable line Dr. Redick has ever yelled at 4:10 PM on a Thursday afternoon. Yes, I have the time memorized. At exactly 4:10 PM on January 23, the fourth class to occur, Dr. Redick yelled, hands up in the air, "It's the vagina of the universe!!!!" and since I'm talking about cave diving, let's connect these two concepts.

    A cave diver's reasoning for shoving themselves into a space that is certainly not designed to fit a human being tends to be the extremeness of the sport. Much like skydiving, people do it for that burst of adrenaline and excitement of, quoting my roommate here, "bringing you closer to God". However, skydiving is done in a wide, endless sky as you plummet towards the ground. Shoving yourself into the earth and potentially getting stuck seems like it would bring you closer to Satan, but that's just me. 

    So, let's look towards a reason that Dr. Redick would agree with. One could be the hero's journey symbolism. Entering these places is like traversing to a different world. This could be representative of awakening to a different person while making the traversal. After all, many people will have to twist and shove themselves into these areas just to make it through.

    But let's talk about the vagina. Using the idea that we tend to use symbolism that relates to the human body, one could argue that these tight caves could represent the birth canal. Going from an open, spacious place into a tight cavern could be representative of being born again. So rather than the vagina of the universe, it's the birth canal of the universe.

"IT'S THE BIRTH CANAL OF THE UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!!!!" 

~ Me, arms up in the air, excitedly.

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