Haunts of Black Masseur
by Charles Sprawson
Swimming as Meditation: Part memoir, part art history & literary analysis: “a scholarly look at the true character of swimmers – isolated souls that somehow find fulfillment in a lonely sensory-deprived act.”
“At a very young age, I began to form a vague conception of the swimmer as someone rather remote and divorced from everyday life, devoted to a mode of exercise where most of the body remains submerged and self-absorbed. It seemed to me that it appealed to the introverted and eccentric, individualists involved in a mental world of their own.” (5)
by Bonnie Tsui
"The breaths, then, make swimming like moving meditation. We take a breath. We hold. We pull, and glide. We take another breath. In between breaths, the thinking happens—about each stroke, each kick, each breath. As we become better swimmers, there is less conscious thinking about swimming and our thoughts are released, free to wander as they may. All the while, the body works. We notice things: how the water moves, what the temperature is like, whether the swimming feels easy or difficult. We are at once hyper-aware and loosed from our bodily constraints.
. . . one thing that distinguishes swimming from all other forms of exercise . . . People enjoy it a lot more . . . this is where swimming has a huge benefit and advantage. . . . people place the highest enjoyment in swimming . . . people keep swimming because they like it. Swimming is the second most popular recreational activity in America, outranked only by walking. But swimming is the one that quite literally takes us out of our element. . . . Swimming is a way for us to remember how to play." (108-09)
The Buddha in the Attic
Swimmers
all 3
by Julia Otsuka
Okay, Emperor and Buddha are not about swimming, nor is the second half of Swimmers; it's about dementia and assisted living.* Still, I suggest that you read these novels as a trilogy. They are short, and you will enjoy their cohesion and relish the swimming segments in the first half of:"The shock of the water -- there is nothing like it on land. The cool clear liquid flowing over every inch of your skin. The temporary reprieve from gravity. The miracle of your own buoyancy as you glide, unhindered, across the glossy blue surface of the pool. It’s just like flying. The pure pleasure of being in motion. The dissipation of all want. I’m free. You are suddenly aloft. Adrift. Ecstatic. Euphoric. In a rapturous and trancelike state of bliss. And if you swim for long enough you no longer know where your own body ends and the water begins and there is no boundary between you and the world. It’s nirvana." (17-18)
"If you run into a fellow member of the pool unexpectedly . . . you may find yourself blushing awkwardly, as though meeting for the first time, even though you may have seen this person every day, sopping wet, practically naked, for more than ten years. I didn't recognize her in her clothes, you may think to yourself." (24)
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| ~ Heart-Shaped Pool ~
At the Villa Independente In the south of France |
"Things from your life before that you will have no use for at Belavista include: your expired Ralphs Rewards card (you will not be going grocery shopping again anytime soon), your oversized reinforced umbrella with the white clouds on the underside (nor will you soon be encountering 'real weather'), your wedding ring (guaranteed to go missing within days), your quilted nylon jacket (indoor - living attire only . . . ), your prized collection of bits of string (no comment) and your week At - a Glance day planner . . . ." (113).
