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Be Informed. Be Inspired.
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The "Wu Word" Blog
The "Wu Word" Blog
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The Swimmer
| Posted on November 14, 2019 at 7:49 PM |
I was in lane two
when I first encountered the swimmer. Lane one by the wall
is my favorite lane because it has more space for me to do my stretches every ten
laps, but that particular after-work swim to de-stress had me swimming in lane
two to avoid the ‘circle’ swim that every swimmer knows about and avoids out of
impatience and desire of personal space for ‘his’ or ‘her’ own lane. My prescription goggles were foggy. I was underwater,
slammed my hand against the wall, and just broke the surface to try to catch my
breath when I heard the swimmer exclaim: “You certainly know what you are doing!” I pulled off my
goggles and squinted. With my horrific
eyesight without my glasses, all I could make out was an elderly gentleman who
looked in his mid to late 70’s. He was
completely bald. He was slim and
well-built with certainly less love handles than me. He had a big grin that revealed gaps of
missing teeth. His eyes shined like a
young and excited child discovering something wondrous and wonderful. He exclaimed happily:
“You are a good swimmer! You must do
this a lot!” I was
uncharacteristically awkward and wordless. It is unspoken swimmer rule that
swimmers do not stop for small talk in the middle of vigorous and driven
laps. He was breaking the unspoken
swimmer rules. I uncomfortably gave him
a half smile and nod alongside my squint and said, “Uhmm…thanks.” Back under the water
I went. However, each time I came up for
air, the swimmer boomed joyfully, “You know what you are doing! You must do this a lot! You are a good swimmer!” I started to get
annoyed. I knew I should not have been annoyed. He was so endearing, sweet, and clearly just
being friendly, but my swim strokes were slower and sloppier because he kept
interrupting me. When I stopped shyly
thanking him for his compliments, he slipped under water swimming slowly,
steadily, and smoothly like a graceful gazelle.
When I left the pool
grumpy that I had a slower swim, he said with his huge smile, “I’ll see you
again! Keep up the great work!” For three weeks, I
kept encountering the swimmer. I began
to notice little things about him. He wore dark blue trunks and black sandals
that he would dip into the pool. It took him up to 30 minutes or more of when
I was about to leave the pool for him to even get into the pool. He
paced back and forth on the pool deck.
He then paced back and forth on the steps into the pool. He always came with his aide who barely even
looked at him because she was so busy with flying fingers texting on her cell
phone. Every now and then, the aide’s
head popped up from the phone to encourage or scold the swimmer, “Get in the
water! It is good for you!” or “Don’t wear your sandals into the pool! You have to go into the pool with bare feet!” Most
of all, I noticed that other swimmers stayed away from him. Just like I had. We had been in such a rush to get our swim
routines over and done with so we could return to our other menial and
supposedly necessary tasks that we had ignored and excluded him. I was ashamed. |
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Your story with the swimmer mirrors what is happening in the world outside the pool. People are busy doing their thing, making sure to do it right to achieve our desired outcome that we never the other people around us. When other people have the nerve to talk to us while in the middle of what is keeping us busy, we get annoyed. We get annoyed at people who we assume is keeping us from what is keeping us occupied. Like in the story, there are people like the swimmer who are experiencing personal struggles but remains positive by being jovial and friendly to other people. This is why we can't simply ignore people we encounter because giving our time, a short time of it, can impact their lives significantly.
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