It's Not That I Don't Like to Swim ...

I have never been much of a swimmer.  Even when I was a kid, hanging out at the pool was not tops on my list.  I would rather play a little baseball than go to the pool.  I enjoy a dip on a hot summer day as much as anyone, but swimming has never been my favorite recreational activity.

Terri usually laughs when she sees me swim.  She says I use twice the energy needed to move about.  She is right.  If I were ever stranded in the middle of a large body of water, I would last about 10 minutes before dying of exhaustion.  This body just wasn't built for the water.

My parents owned a lake home right on the Lake of the Ozarks.  For years we visited them several times a summer.  I think I entered the water once voluntarily, and one other time thanks to niece Heather's jet ski driving inability.  Or was that Lyndy?  All I really remember was my head skipping along the water as I desperately clung to a jet ski after the driver made a smooth bank right followed by a quick 90 degree jerk to the left.  On the fifth or sixth face skip, I decided to just let go and go in.  That was my only time in the water that year.

I can sit next to a large body of water for hours on end.  It just never occurs to me that I should get in.  Last weekend I asked my grandson if he had been swimming.  It turns out he is a lot like me and doesn't have the desire to swim.  I asked him if he was afraid to swim.  He responded that he was not, but that he was afraid of sinking.  He's a lot like me.