Was a heavy day’s work
Lots of muck
Lots of thoughts about muck
Lots of heavy work
Lots of thoughts about heavy work
Unlike every day of the last many months, there was hardly a moment to spare. I am in a busy place. A little farm, a nice family; a family farm with quite a structured routine and sense of togetherness. Probably what a typical nuclear family was supposed to be like before the model went so wrong, for so many. They are religious. I’m guessing that has something to do with it.
Anyway after we finished up work, the final strokes of it completed under a gorgeous Spring sun set with the bleating of countless baby goats and goat mamas in the background, I set off. Stripped off, pulled on a frock, grabbed a towl, slipped into my shoes – before greeting a rather surprised mother-of-the-family on the way out the door.
“I’m gonna go to the lake before it’s dark”
“Oh wow. Brave. Do you want to take tractor?” she laughs.
I run down the road until I see the lake; wide and still, under that snoozing purpley-grey dusk sky. The beauty is here but I am not fully here.
I get to the pier and I am eager to be in that water. Eager to be naked. I walk along the rocks behind the pier wall so as not to ‘offend with my nudity’ the few people around the pier/dock/car park. I set up my phone to take a video, in case the scene looks remotely sexy – or at least funny. (It looks neither, freaky is more the word I’d use!)
I’m just getting into the water when a man and a woman start running towards me.
“Hey! Hey! Are you alright?! Are you okay?!”
(Huh? Seriously? You’re offended by my completely clandestine nude dip?)
“Yeah I’m fine. Just going for a swim! I like to swim naked!”
“Are you fine? Are you alright?” they keep asking.
(Ah – nude girl with crazy wild hair jumping into water at night – now I see what they’re getting at… they think I’m about to kill myself!!)
“Yeah honestly I’m fine, just swimming”
At this stage I’m in. The water is cold but not bitterly so. But between the frantically worried woman and the enormous swan flying directly towards me – I’m not so aware of how the swimming feels.
I get out and chat to the woman. She is genuinely worried and coming from a good place, it just dawns on me. After trying to reassure her yet another time, I thank her for asking anyway.
“You know how some people are.” she says solemnly.
She walks away still not fully convinced. I get dressed, pull back my hair and slip into my shoes. I look semi normal again, I suppose.
It’s a funny little message. When people do stray off to the edge, there will most likely be somebody there about to pull them back. There must be something in us humans… we are all self-preservative really, and though we live in an individualist culture, deep down we do have a part of us that knows our true self is the Self. We are species-preservative in a way. We may not always be kind to each other all the time, but we don’t want to see parts of our species self-destruct. Or perhaps it’s more of a conscience thing…
So anyway, initially I was just peeved that this woman was making me out like a crazie and disturbing my peaceful solo swim, but later I came to somehow appreciate it. What if I really had been swimming out to end it? This woman might have ‘saved’ my life. Pwah. Perspective, eh?
To top it all off, on my way home, the father of the household drove past and he had a towel on the front seat waiting for me. He had come to pick me up! I hadn’t asked, he just came. Bwah people are kind.
People are kind, but at the end of the day my skinny dip was still ruined. I’ll have to go another day… with better timing !
Hannah Fitzpatrick Creative 