This morning Tom Ashcroft interviewed writer Akiko Bush. Normally I don’t listen to most of the NPR programming discussing the latest read, because I don’t particularly find listening to interviews about books to be interesting but today I tuned in.
Akiko wrote a book entitled, ‘9 Ways to Cross a River.’ The book chronicles her travels swimming America’s rivers. She says that to own our rivers we must overcome our fears and swim the nation’s rivers to truly own them. She also said that there is nothing more freeing to the mind and soul than swimming.
This interview lead my mind back to childhood. I would call myself an extremely strong swimmer, but I have a deep fear of the ocean. I have vivid memories of riding on the nearest adult’s back so that my feet would not touch the bottom, for fear that I would be bitten by a crab or worse a shark.
I don’t mind ponds and I have been known to jump out of my kayak and swim a river or two. But it is interesting that today most people have a deep seeded fear of their local waterways. The population is discouraged from swimming in natural areas. Over time we have built pristine pools, man-made lakes, ponds and of course those beautiful oasis’s at golf courses. (don’t tell me you haven’t wanted to jump in!) But, for some reason or other we have shunned most of our natural waters.
We are educated by local scientists to believe that our waters contain bacteria, trash and the occasional fresh water shark. I think we need to ask ourselves, where did this big fear of the water come from? Deep down inside we all just want to jump in. Think back to when you were a child, swimming was the most exciting experience. As a kid you didn’t care what you looked like in a bathing suit and neither did any of the other kids. You could play for hours in the water and it was never boring or too cold.
As adults we are always after things that are free and fun. That local river or pond, is free and it is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Don’t think about the creepy crawlers on the bottom, or the plastic bag floating near the shore. Throw on your suit and wade in the water. I would like to encourage us all to start a movement, ‘The Swim Movement’ where we rekindle our love of the water and jump in.
What’s the worst that could happen?