Day before yesterday I had to sneak my swim in before the end of the workday. I got in the water around 2:15, ahead of the high school swim team at 3:00. After warm up I noted the guy in the lane next to me: older (70+) with a nice freestyle stroke and a better backstroke.
We exchanged pleasantries, mostly about how great it was to be in the water. Then he said something like, "It's good for getting rid of the hate." I found this peculiar. "How's that?" I asked.
He identified himself as a surgeon. Forty years ago he was sued by a lawyer with whom he'd been social. "A week before he filed the suit," said the doctor, "we had dinner together with our wives at his home." He became consumed with anger and hatred. The case lasted five years, then was dismissed. But the anger stuck around. Ultimately the surgeon, from New York state, found swimming. He worked in five hospitals, each in a different community. He bought pool memberships at five different pools. Every day after work, the man made a beeline for the corresponding pool. Day after day, the swim calmed him, and washed off the hatred. But he had to do it, every single day.
He worked another 25 years, swimming all the while. Fifteen years after that, he's still swimming. And it's still washing off the anger.
Imagine: swimming every single day, just to calm you enough to avoid killing your adversary. He's better now, but still wouldn't risk an encounter with the lawyer.
Wow.
Been thinking about that story nonstop. Had to file it here.
Parents
Former Member
In Death is a Lonely Business by Ray Bradbury, the Constance Rattigan character swims daily. At one point she and the narrator check into a hotel room, and she bribes the employees in order to be allowed to swim at midnight. The narrator wonders what is this obsession with swimming, and she explains that no one can see her cry or hear her scream in the water.
I have heard more than one swimmer make similar comments -- of both genders. I think there was a book with such a title advertised in the USMS magazine but also don't have that in front of me.
Personally I have never screamed or cried in the pool, and probably done much less of both than normal outside of the pool, but we all need to recharge or mentally re-order things to be in a better perspective.
And it is not just swimmers -- I have come across some runners and cyclists verbalizing some very peculiar thoughts when they thought they were all alone on a deserted part of the course. I just say hello (or "on your left") as I pass, and never make a comment because whatever I heard was none of my business!
In Death is a Lonely Business by Ray Bradbury, the Constance Rattigan character swims daily. At one point she and the narrator check into a hotel room, and she bribes the employees in order to be allowed to swim at midnight. The narrator wonders what is this obsession with swimming, and she explains that no one can see her cry or hear her scream in the water.
I have heard more than one swimmer make similar comments -- of both genders. I think there was a book with such a title advertised in the USMS magazine but also don't have that in front of me.
Personally I have never screamed or cried in the pool, and probably done much less of both than normal outside of the pool, but we all need to recharge or mentally re-order things to be in a better perspective.
And it is not just swimmers -- I have come across some runners and cyclists verbalizing some very peculiar thoughts when they thought they were all alone on a deserted part of the course. I just say hello (or "on your left") as I pass, and never make a comment because whatever I heard was none of my business!
