'Global Nomad' by Tom Haig

Tom Haig today

As a youngster growing up in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, suburb, Tom Haig ran wild with the neighborhood's kids. By seventh grade, the thirst for adventure and fearlessness he learned from them led him to springboard diving. "When I was older and experienced, I would feel, deep in my soul, that I was a diver."

After graduating from the University of Illinois, Tom flew to Luxembourg on his first international trip. Despite being broke, hungry, and far from a flight home, he and his brother Dan headed to Venice, Italy. "Without any warning, the greatest and most powerful epiphany of our lives unfolded. We looked back at the paths we'd chosen to get to this starving moment, and concluded that not only had we made the right choice to stretch things to the limit, we were committed to continue to make those same kinds of decisions the rest of our lives." And so began The Bridge to Venice Rule.

Living by that pact, Tom started work as a performance diver in Missouri. Several times a day, he climbed to a small platform, lit himself on fire, and dove seventy miles per hour into a shallow lake. Soon he was traveling all over the world, including to the 1989 Acapulco Cliff Diving Contest. In France he fell in love with cycling and carried a new passion back to Portland, Oregon, until one Sunday morning in September 1996. He crashed headfirst into a truck and found himself living a very different life from a wheelchair. His recovery—mentally, physically, and emotionally—was excruciating. "I'd been in car accidents, fallen from water towers, and landed flat on my back from 70-foot multiple somersaulting dives. No crying. I used to swear, jump up and down, and tell jokes. Anything but cry. I was going to have to learn how to cry again, or I wasn't going to survive. Then again, I wasn't sure if I wanted to survive."

In Global Nomad, Tom shares his early free-wheeling life with its exciting cities and colorful personalities, and his extraordinary post-accident return to The Bridge to Venice Rule—racing in marathons, traveling solo in some of the world's poorest countries, meeting the Dalai Lama, jamming with jazz great Oscar Klein, holding disability seminars, and starting the International Rehabilitation Forum with his physician brother Andy. In the process, he bares the unvarnished aftermath and heartbreaking vulnerabilities that follow permanent paralysis, and inspires us all to take risks and live remarkable, generous lives.

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That's the Amazon book description for Tom Haig's new book Global Nomad. Tom has appeared on TOP before—in this post from 2007. I don't know Tom well—he's part of an extended family I've been close to all my life, and he might not remember me, I don't know. But I have heard stories about his life intermittently for years, and all I can say is that if anyone should write an autobiography it's Tom! A true daredevil, who has several different kinds of courage.

I've ordered mine and will post an update after I read it.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

David Raboin: "Wow. My two favorite blogs profiled the same person. Check out this article about Tom on Bike Portland."

Mike replies: They did a much better job than I did...let's send everyone there!

Comments

[Olybacker]

Joni Eareckson Tada is another one, although her quadriplegia came from diving into water that was too shallow. Her book 'Joni: The unforgettable story of a young woman's struggle against quadriplegia & depression' is also well worth reading.

[David Raboin]

Wow. My two favorite blogs profiled the same person. Check out this article about Tom on Bike Portland.

https://bikeportland.org/2023/04/04/profile-portlands-global-nomad-shares-high-and-lows-of-adventurous-life-372176/amp