The big swim: Hats off! You go granny!

Published 11:09 pm Wednesday, September 4, 2013

There’s something very special about a 64-year-old woman swimming from Cuba to Florida that makes me want to jump up and shout. In fact I did. You go granny!

This old girl had tried this four times before but came up short. I am impressed! Talk about a reality show, this wasn’t some yocal clown chasing a possum in a hen house and giving some off-key rebel yell once the varmint had been sacked and society was safe from its predatation. Nor was it some spoiled brat in New Jersey complaining about a bad manicure.  This was as real as it gets. No shark cage, no flotation devices. A woman and the ocean. You can’t see bottom, and you can’t see land.

 I’ve often said that Cuban refugees have made that crossing on homemade crafts that I wouldn’t cross Lake Seminole in. And here comes Diana Nyad swimming for 53 hours in waters filled with stinging jelly fish and great white sharks.

Of course she had an escort but they did not assist her beyond giving her nourishment, most of which she vomited. Had she run into serious trouble, yes they would have rescued her. And that would also be the case of naked people trying to survive (mostly complaining) in some tropical swamp.

Now I poohpooed Nik Wallenda’s walk across the Grand Canyon. And I know someone will say it’s the same thing. Well I don’t think it is. I know his event was more death defying and required an intense concentration and a tandem of courage bigger than church bells, but hers was about endurance, and of course her age added another dimension to the challenge. Swimming is natural. Walking a tight rope across the Grand Canyon is not.

Maybe what I’m saying is that her persistence and tenacity has socially redeeming value in that those qualities could possibly inspire others to keep trying at some endeavor.

And maybe I’m saying that those of us near her age can find great encouragement in even much lesser feats that otherwise we might take off our  “things-to-do” list.

I haven’t swam in a long time. When I was younger I was a good swimmer. My friends and I used to see how long we could stay afloat down at the old wash hole on Tired Creek.

Most of the time we just got bored and quit after a long while. Doing cannon balls off the bluff was much more fun.

Swimming is a great exercise. There is very little pressure on the joints and it has tremendous cardio implications. I’m thinking about adding it to my regular exercise program now.

And no I don’t plan to swim any great distance. That horse has left the barn. But having read about this lady, I do have some new perspectives on my conditioning program. When I think I might talk myself out of an exercise, I will visualize this woman with her face all puffy from the salt, sun and jelly fish and resolve that I can pump a few more reps or jog another mile … and possibly push away from a few more biscuits, the greater of the challenges.

This swim was 110 miles. Folks that’s halfway from Moultrie to Atlanta. I get exhausted driving that far.

She balked when someone described her as a hero but said she hopes she can serve as some sort of inspiration. Indeed!

“I think that a lot of people in our country have gotten depressed, pinned in, pinned down with living lives they don’t want,” Nyad said.

She continued: “I do write all the time.”

Well she may just write a bestseller one day. She might call it, “The Old Lady and the Sea.”

 I would think her research has far surpassed Hemmingway’s in that venue.

(Dwain Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Observer, 985-4545. Email: dwain.walden@gaflnews.com)