Shadow Divers' Kurson Q&A

Divester's Erik Olsen has ranted and raved about Shadow Divers and while I have yet to read it (it's on my to-do list--I'm a busy girl), I was glued to CDNN's Q&A with the book's author, Robert Kurson. Now I have to read the book.

The Q&A tells what moved Kurson to write about John Chatterton and Richie Kohler's six year quest for a sunken German submarine, a World War II U-boat found 230 feet deep 60 miles off the New Jersey coast. What resonated with me the most was what Chatterton and Kohler told Kurson about the driving force for making these dangerous dives:

"They... had to do this or they would die inside. It was preferable for them to die physically than for them to die inside, the way they would have if they'd turned their backs on this mystery."

I understand how death inside your soul can be more painful than physical death. It's the passion that drives us all. It's the reason the rock climber's sweaty palm reaches for the unknown crevice, the reason the free diver feels the need to go just a few feet deeper, the reason the poker player might mistakingly go all in on the possibility that the turn could send him to glory.......It's the reason I swim just a little closer to that reef shark and the very same reason I left behind the life of timelines and a career that provided the "sensible safety net". Perhaps one of the simplest reasons I dive is to prevent that death of the soul.......

Yes....I have to read the book.....And you should at the very least read this Q&A.

Read