Navy Seals

 

            “Did you see the other swimmer out there?” Ian’s toweling off, pointing toward the bay’s choppy grey waters.

            “Nope,” I shiver, trying to get out of the wetsuit after my grueling, yet exhilarating swim to the pylons.

            “He’s out there,” Ian asserts. “He said he was training for the Navy Seals!”

            We both chuckle. But then I think, yup, it feels like that somedays, today especially. The water had been chilly and choppy for my swim out to the pylons against these waves and the wind. It was work! About halfway to the pylons I began to wonder, what the hell am I doing out here? In the SF Bay of all places? On a frigid summer’s day in the Bay Area. The skies are grey and cloudy. The wind is insistent in its frigid blowing. I fight to get even a few yards. Sometimes it even feels like I’m going backwards.

            I’ll never forget the time we went swimming with my Grandma Thompson. We were in a bright aqua pool, the sun was shining, I think my sisters were there too. Maybe it was our pool in Hacienda Heights that I reveled in as a girl. Maybe it was the pool at Gram’s Oceana complex in Oceanside. In any case, she got in. Gave it her all. Stroking the water, blowing bubbles. But to no avail. She just kept going backwards! It was hilarious. And she took it all in good humor.

            Today, though, my swimming conditions were hardly an idyllic day at the pool with Gram. It did feel like a battle. So, when Ian said this other swimmer was training for the Navy Seals, I had to laugh, but I also had to think, yup, it feels that crazy. Here we are out on the shore, in the freezing grey wind, with nary a soul around except for some unfriendly beachcombers, and it just seems like another world.

            And isn’t it? I mean, our world is NOT what it was 6 months ago. I don’t have access to my indoor pools anymore, let alone the heaty beauty of the sauna! I don’t have any contact with anyone outside of my bubble, which is Ian. And, I don’t go anywhere, but work from home on Zoom with students and writers. It’s surreal.

            Navy Seals do what anyway? They fight for the Navy in the sea? Like they are Combat Seals? How do they train? I remember a student of mine who wrote about being in the Navy, I’m not sure if he was a Seal, but he wrote about how he failed at some test and so he had to stay swimming in the water for hours, no matter how cold or tired he got, he just had to stay in the ocean.

            I remember thinking, this is torture! And, then I think, yeah, the US Military must be torturous. My students, most of whom have income, but some that don’t, enter the military. It’s a way to survive. And after they serve, it’s a way to get through college with the GI bill. I am always torn about this. On the one hand, I don’t believe or support any of the wars that the US is in right now. But on the other hand, I have to admire the courage that it takes these students to go off to these battlegrounds and sacrifice their lives—if not literally, then at the least, their psyches will never be the same.

            So, today, when I finally spy the Navy Seal trainee coming into shore, his florescent orange buoy trailing behind him, looking nothing like a Navy Seal really, but just some old guy in a worn wet suit with scraggy hair and a big grin, I think, yeah, it is a battle out there. Of course, it’s nothing like what my students face in Afghanistan or Iraq or what thousands of people are facing today with the Pandemic and all of its horrors, but it’s war today. We have to have courage to see what each day brings.

            I have the courage to brave the waters at Keller Beach. I am training for the Non-Navy Seals. I will continue to swim no matter what the cost.

            “Do you know if the showers are working?” Navy Seal man asks us as he heaves himself up the shore.

            “I think so,” Ian says. “The bathrooms are closed, but I think the showers are working.”

            “I hope so!” Navy Seal Man chuckles as he pulls off his military armor—wetsuit, orange floaty, fins. “See you guys tomorrow,” he grins at us, gathering up his gear and heading up the path to the showers.

            “Yup, see you tomorrow,” we call after him. Though for myself, I won’t be heading back to battle so soon. It takes me a few days to recuperate after the swim to the pylons.

            We gather up our gear, Ian, shouldering the bulk of the equipment. I turn to gaze out to the windy sea before we leave. It is still the same as when I was in it. Grey, wavy, timeless. 

        Tromping up the path under the eucalyptus, I hear the shower running. Navy Seal Man. I don't say anything to him as I follow Ian up the hill, away from the water, and toward my day.