Something about swimming

I’m no professional swimmer. The retirees at the community pool possibly surge past me. They wait each morning outside the gates at a quarter past six. I can also relate of at least one avid swimmer who camped out in the toilet overnight to await dawn, so there’s commitment for you. And the involvement of the police. But as I do my first kick off from the wall and take my gulp of air, something about the feel of water, blurry blue lines on the floor; the lap ahead, makes me feel the life of --life.

As a swimmer friend once told me, walking and running come naturally to us since we are trained the moment we can from birth. We stride, sprint and stroll upright until death or unless pre-maturely incapacitated. But in water, it’s an education of a whole new world! We un-breathe or we die; our equilibrium goes awry; the pressure startles us into floating or sinking, and goggles irritate us more than our eye glasses or contact lenses. We don’t even have an operation like “lasik” to remove the ciliary muscles in our human eyes. In fact, my mom often randomly quotes the Chinese proverb that “water is much more feared than mountain.” This is the nature of water that makes the swim a form of conquer.

Comparable to life, we want to do more than survive. We want to succeed in it. Not just drift along where currents bring us, but be able to swim against the tide, or allow its strength to push us forward. We learn the breast-stroke, butterfly, frontcrawl. And when wanting the best of both worlds, we do the backstroke. This morning, I’m doing more frontcrawl than the other styles. There are moments when I forget I am swimming, and think about the day’s commitments, and all the movements become mechanical. But with a distracting splash from the next swimmer, I lose my momentum and begin thrashing about. It takes some effort to regain the poise and rhythm, and discipline to feel the way my body moves.

Something about swimming that makes the shower more refreshing and the gift from a friend, a raspberry bath, more fragrant. Something about swimming that makes the steps to work a little lighter, and the work clothes softer. Something about swimming that makes the diet coke taste more delicious and no less sinful. Something about swimming that makes the team meeting later—


what meeting?