Ours has become a pluralistic culture – not only with various ethnicities but also with a wide spectrum of age groups and political views. In a microcosm, I will demonstrate how this comes into play in our daily lives. My first blog on this topic will focus on my local fitness center, which attracts many people of different ages, abilities, races and cultures.
I’ve been swimming 72 laps (1 mile) three times per week for nearly 30 years, which makes me a strong, fast swimmer. (Yes, my biceps are enviable.) This morning, the available three lap lanes were taken up by “turtle-esque” swimmers, who were elderly, obese or nearly catatonic. Whereas I would stroke (my arms) every 10 seconds with an accompanying kick, “they” would either raise their arms or semi-kick their legs every 60 seconds or so. These moves did not take them far.
When I attempted to share a lane, I whizzed past these swimmers, who were on the verge of needing a lifeline thrown to them. (I may appear callous, but elderly/obese/nearly catatonic swimmers do not belong in a swift-moving, high-capacity lap lane. Give them a nice, warm pool and they would consider it nirvana.) Instead of bullying them out of the lap lanes, I moved over into the then-open community lanes – an open space with 1-1/2 lap lanes for leisure swimmers.
I was swimming along the black line of one of the lap lanes, which guides and propels me, when an elderly woman decided to cross over into my lane and stop just when I was coming to the pool’s edge. I was forced to stop by her presence and wanted to scream, “What are you doing in my lane?” But instead, I strategically said, “I’m sorry that I’m in your space. But I have nowhere else to swim. When another lane opens up – and I gestured to the slow-moving swimmers who had taken over lanes 1-3 – I will move over there.”
She kindly replied in a heavy Italian accent, “Oh, don’t apologize.” I was heartened by her response. She was in her correct space (the community lane) even though she had inconsiderately blocked my passage. And, I knew that I was out of my element (the swift-moving lap lanes).
My next strategic move will be to get those slow-moving swimmers into the right space (community lanes) so that faster swimmers, myself included, can get our workouts done with no impedance.
With all the battles of daily life, confronting the pool administration is one less thing that I want to tackle during my morning workout. But I think the time is fast approaching to take a stand. Then, things should be moving swimmingly. Stay tuned. Let’s see if I have the (beach) balls to rectify this.
