Back Rooms

Early swim today. I need to pickup my son at 8:15 so my plan is to make coffee, put it in a thermos, swim, change into clothes at the beach, pour coffee and head to my ex-wife’s to get my son.

It's overcast this morning. Darn. It was beatifuly sunny yesterday. Oh well that's ok. It will still be wonderful I'm sure of it. I walk my dog, brew the coffee and I am out a little before 6:00.

I park, walk down the stairs and the beach is practically empty. I only see one person walking and soon I will see a solitary surfer in the water. The ocean surface is smooth and the horizon is soft and grey.

I put my feet in the water and it's cool. The waves look small despite the fact that the surf report says it's 4-5 feet. I'm not seeing that.

I head into the water and swim south. I let the cold water penetrate my insides. I try to fully embrace the feel of it and welcome it. Soon it feels less shocking and it just feels right. It's like the water responds to my curiosity and puts on a more benign demeanor. The experience of initial immersion fascinates me. It feels like the water and I come to an implicit understanding of one another. An understanding of mutual respect which moves into fondness.

Over the entire swim I am thinking of this movie I watched with my oldest son last night. It was called Backrooms and would probably fall under the horror genre but it was not particularly gory but more psychological and really super fascinating. I'm not even going to begin to pick it all apart here. The movie is about these back rooms this guy finds in his shop. It was like a huge and endless hidden dimension of abandoned office space with scattered furniture and other very odd and not quite right accessories. The thing I want to point out here is that there was no natural light in this space. Just florescent office lighting. There was really nothing natural about this space at all. It was about as artificial as one could imagine. And this guy gets stuck there.

On my swim I am struck by the extreme difference of where I am now to those back rooms in the movie. This is about as natural as it gets. I am out here away from any kind of artificial or manmade creation. I am surrounded by water - the very element that sustains us and gives us life. I can feel it giving me life now. It's timeless. This water has been here millions of years. When I look to the horizon I see the same thing seen since the beginning when people first started seeing things.

It feels good. Those back rooms were lifeless and sought to consume anyone who entered. There was fear and darkness. The walls were confining and claustrophobic. The water here is expansive and extends out into seemingly limitless space. I breathe in fresh air. The water moves and is playful and the surfers dance with it's energy in order to capture all the joy they can get and there is plenty.

The swim is great and time flies. I can hardly believe how quickly I get from the south end of the beach to the Ritz up north. I can see waves breaking in the distance at salt creek.

I head back to finish up and a flock of pelicans flies overhead. I stop to try to get a photo. Then I see about 5 swimmers coming my way. One stops to say hi and then we continue in opposite directions. Soon I am back on the beach.