Douglas Adams wrote a well known book The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy which is really quite an interesting novel. It has an excellent rebuttal to vegans with the topic "Meet the Meat", it gives the answer to life the universe and everything "42", and it even tells people how to fly " it's just falling without hitting the ground" (which is actually orbit but that's a different story. However, it also has one really useful piece of advice for life in general "Don't Panic".
In life most people actually do panic. How do I know this?
Many people can't swim
Now I'm quite certain that many people who don't know how to swim are going to call me out for being narrowminded, sortsighted or mean spirited when I saw this. It is not meant that way and I hope you will let me tell you why...and it all hinges on a SNUBA lesson I took once.
Many people have heard of SCUBA diving but SNUBA is simpler. The boat has the machine that supplies air to those people in the water. Just put on the mouthpiece and you can go in the water and breathe. Simple....but there is one problem people quickly find out. It is really hard to go underwater because your body keeps moving up! You really have to work hard to go underwater which isn't much fun. So... with SNUBA the first thing they did was put a weighted belt on each person so they actually sank down.
People typically tend to float because lungs are an internal flotation device. Air in lungs and you float. Unless you are really muscular (muscle is heavier than water) then perhaps you sink. However, if you panic and thrash? You tend to deflate your lungs (by screaming) and without air you sink...and if you breathe in water no more bouyancy so you sink and drown.
I learned to float very early. Probably 5 years old or so. Take a deep breath and lie on my back. No panic, just float. Once I'm not worried that I'll get swallowed up in the water learning the basics of swimming is easy. Plus I know if I screw up swimming I just flip on my back and lay there floating for as long as I need to.
Now while I am typically in no danger of drowning I'm also a pretty bad swimming. Water messes with my glasses so I can't see. I'm not athletic so I tire out fairly easy. I'm not coordinated so I do more floundering and splashing than moving but I absolutely can get from one side of the pool to the other. Indeed when I was about 8 years old my mom got really angry with me because I floated halfway across a lake .... on my back of course because I'm too lazy to work to keep myself afloat. I knew I would be fine getting to the other side but my mom? She wasn't happy with me.
However, extra stuff can certainly weigh you down. Would I want to swim in heavy clothing? Nope. Would I want to swim carrying a weight? Nope. Would I want to try and swim where there were undercurrents that could drag me down or on rough waters / waves that can carry me under? Absolutely not.
.... and all this is pretty good advice for life.
It is quite easy to make a comparison between life and swimming. Some people panic at everything even when things are calm. What does that panic accomplish? Nothing beneficial. Without panic people could have floated through. They could have done OK with little effort. Add panic? Things become much harder, the whole mindset changes, and the thrashing and extra movement may actually cause you more harm than good. Certainly it will lead to a less productive mindset!
Or how about clinging to too much stuff? Things weight you down both in the pool and in life. Some things like life preservers make your swimming much easier and in life some things like a nice home, transportation and food make things much easier also. However keep adding more stuff and you will find you sink. Indeed my son found that out. He had a motorcycle, a vehicle, and many other items that he believed he needed to be happy. Then he found out that every item you have is one more thing that requires your attention, your money and more. One day he sold his bike and all the gear that went with it. He told me "Dad, that bike was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. But... The stress of repairs, the cost of gear, the worry about other drivers hitting me, the gas, the oil, the tires and everything else? Dad, the everyday worries just weren't worth the joy the few times I took it out!"
I was so proud when he figured that out. Things are nice...until they cause you to sink!
Now about 30 years ago I tried to teach a really nice Filipina lady how to swim. We went into the ocean and it was only about 1 meter deep. I asked her to lay on her back and I supported her with my arms. She weighed nothing as the ocean carried all her weight. I told her to take a deep breath to fill her lungs (and honestly I wasn't doing that to look at her chest 馃ぃ) then I would move my arms down. What happened? Every time she panicked. She would drop her butt, feel as if she was sinking...breathe out and sink. She never did learn to float that day which made me a little sad. I tried to model just laying there like a log but some instincts are hard to overcome.
And that's my thought on today's Hive Learners post topic "Swimming". Thanks for reading this far as I really appreciate eyes on my posts. Of course you may not agree (or perhaps you do) either way I'd love to get a comment. I really appreciate comments.
Thanks
