Man is inhumane towards man. Okay, I can go with that. The Savannah is vanishing; sanctuary is receding. Okay, I guess that's true too. Man kills and hurts innocent people that are unfortunate enough to be less than them, sort of like a skewed survival of the fittest if half the world was never given a chance to survie. Yes, that too, is sadly true. There is no hope and no where to turn; we will only survive is someone is willing to sacrifice themself. Well...
If any of y'all hadn't noticed, I'm on a swim team. Team being the key word. When I have a rough day, I have my team to fall back on. If I have a rough swim, my team has "got me." And same goes for them. My team and I, well, we're a team. (I don't care how awful that pun was.) Being on a team is a sanctuary within a sanctuary. It's a beautiful mob mentality of acceptance. It's a beautiful sense of conformity; even though we are all different, we are the same as a team.
When I'm having a bad meet, I don't race for myself, I race for my team. If I can't do well for me, I can do well for them. When I count (laps) for my friends, I get just as caught up in the race as them. There's that wonderful sense of comradery which has no equal. You see them coming into the wall, racing, breathing hard, pulling...pushing...fighting for air and position and then they're at the flags. And then you're shaking the counter up...down...side to side. You hold your breath and wait. They wait to hold their breath. You're pushing for them to win and they're pushing for them to win and everyone is cheering; your heart races and you can't breathe and they are just so close. Keep going! You scream. GO GO GO GO GO, even though they are going. They are going so fast and in this moment they--you--have to decide, "Do I want to win?" "Am I willing to push myself to win; am I willing to experience this pain?" And they--you--have to. There isn't a choice to try when you're on a team. And when they touch the wall, regardless of how they do, it's...everything. Voila! It's done and over. From the practice to the block, from the workouts and the training to the pool and the race, from everyone one and everything to one single, defining race; it's done.
That's how I felt counting for, and swimming, my 500 free. How I did isn't important (but I did do pretty awesome), what's important is why I did it. For my team and they did what they did for the team. Man may be pretty inhumane towards man, our sanctuary from harm may be receding. This struggle is real, but it's nice to lose yourself in the team. In the team, we don't have to be exposed to that inhumanity. As for sacrifice, I sacrifice and they sacrifice for the team. If this is sounding a little 1984, so be it. In the team (I promise I'll stop saying team), I am protected from it all and I protect them and we protect each other. It's exhilarating to be with each other and part of each other and in this way we escape that inhumanity.
I absolutely adored your stylistic mimicry of Giovanni's piece. And your use of y'all. It had quite a Southern twang to it, but nevertheless, was extremely well written.
ReplyDelete...Great sentiment, but keep in mind, the elephants in the savannah were a team, and a very well functioning one at that. And the hunters were a team. One that outdid the Elephants. I think it's more realistic to not say that man is a wolf to man, but rather that Men are wolves to other men. Because not that many changes have happened due to the actions of a man. It's almost always a team.
ReplyDelete(even as I write this I'm half wincing at how badly that must be received, but hey it is what I have to think about it.)