Shouldn't…but Do

Intense humidity and the overwhelming scent of chlorine.  Must be annual summer swimming lessons.

Although mundane, perhaps no event better marks the passage of summer, and the youth of my children, than these lessons.  From anxious hand holding into the water, to the first diving board jump, the abandon of cannonballs, and now, measured perfecting of lifetime strokes.

The watery medium, how to survive it, how to master it, why to respect it.  Interaction between human and water, always dynamic, at once easy and comfortable, at once deadly.  Water and life are like that.

And those familiar with this gig, our abandon resigned to hard metal bleachers, admire their energy, try to help, give them ways to avoid drowning.  If only I could remember as much myself.