Summer Nonsense

Last updated on: June 27, 2021 at 10:59 pm by Sherry Antonetti

Summer Nonsense 2021-06-27T22:59:09-04:00 Sherry Antonetti

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Today, we took our kids swimming. I’ve ordered a pool pass for countless summers. We’re part of why the local municipality rewrote its policy to define family…because having a family of eight to ten to twelve get into the summer fun for the same price as a family of four seemed unfair. However, many of the pool sites look similar and I accidentally signed up for a pool system for the summer that is much better than we’ve had up to now. They have indoor and outdoor pools –so off we went.

I really ought to know better, but years of experience prove, I don’t. The indoor pool had two diving boards. One for sane normal people, and the other, for people like me. Despite having 54 years of experience with gravity, the tower sang its siren call to me. Regaling my offspring with tales of the Y tower in Beamont, a huge monstrosity of steel and wood and concrete where you stood on a plank (about six feed wide by 8 feet wide) and daring souls ran off the end, plunging into the deep.

More than a few walked back down those stairs, unwilling to risk their necks for the thrill of dropping what must have been twenty feet into twenty-five feet of water. I’m sure the physics weren’t safe then, yet somehow we survived to adulthood. As such, the drop from a safe twelve feet seemed infintely safer and so I talked myself into climbing the stairs.

The board proved narrow, making the walking out the last three feet to jump an act of bravery. I jumped and forgot to point my feet, a fact my feet have not forgotten since. Still, having proven my courage and impressed my teens (not an easy feat even with my flexed feet), I contented myself with the rest of the pool, swiming laps, floating, occasionally attempting to coax the youngest two in swimming practice.

Two of my teens decided to jump. “Mom jumped off the high board first thing!” my youngest daughter said to my son. He’d been skateboarding and missed the jump. So I needed to go again. Stupid, stupid, stupid, I know, but perhaps the stupidity came from having jumped off the tower so many times so many years ago. The smarts bellyflopped then, and have been circulating in the Gulf of Mexico ever since they drained the pool.

Familiarity breeds contempt, and presumptive familiarity leads to foolishness. I decided I’d dive this time, just to make it new. The board still felt narrow and I overarched such that it became a sort of flip –and it wasn’t graceful or pretty. Plus it stung. My legs are still reminding me…”We’ve been good to you for fifty-four years and this is how you reward us?”

What did I learn? That fourty years from when I started jumping off the high board is long enough to weed out the skill, but not the Darwinian impulse that allowed for it to happen. Still, there’s something to be said for being able to say, “I dove off the high dive.” even if the dive itself proved ugly. It feels like a summer seized, as all the belly flops, flips, half gainers, back dives, can openers, cannon balls, jack knives and swans came back to me in memory if not muscle memory. We finished the day with blueberry pie. Happy Summer everyone. Every day’s a blessing, even when you botch it on the high dive and should know better.

Family Humor

family life

adult stupidty

and 55 does not look promising

childish joy

impulsiveness

still not mature at 54

summer memory

Previous Post

June 23, 2021

Catholics Should Not Be Thinking "Katy, Bar the Door."

Next Post

June 29, 2021 We All Want What Isn't Yet, to be Better

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Answered Prayers Blessed Mother Confirmation Devotion of the Sacred Heart Doctors of the Church Easter Family Humor family life Good Friday Growing up Healing Holy Spirit taps Lent Love in the little things Mary Undoer of Knots Not an Apologist Parenting Sacred Heart of Jesus Saint Therese of Lisieux Sin Small Success Saturday Teaching others and myself Uncategorized Waiting Writing Year of Saint Joseph

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz