No Chaser

It's fun to swim at the YMCA

because I can walk there in under fifteen minutes or ride my bike there in about three

because I get a big old lane all to myself

because everyone else in the pool is at least fifteen years older than me (except for the little waterbug who skims across the pool for a half hour every Thursday while her mother/coach provides advice from the deck)

because the pool is not too chlorinated

because there are no nubile undergrads to make me feel like a big melted sundae

because the young girls (ages 6-11) in the locker room stare at me and whisper about my tattoo (and this reminds me of when I was young and stared at grown women in the locker room wondering how my own body would look when I got older)

because I like to smile and say hello to these same girls and they smile back

because the naked old women in the locker room are not ashamed and are not comparing and they look beautiful and make me feel lovely too.

posted by: NoChaser at January 26, 2006 13:54 | link | comments (2) |

Comments:

#1  26 January 2006 - 21:27

 

:-)

I don't swim at the YMCA, but in recent years I have come to learn that my body type--while not featured in certain periodicals I peruse or in clothing advertising--is nonetheless both a common and by many desirable type. This realization has improved my self-esteem, obviously. Also, the realization that I'm effortlessly 25% stronger than the next bloke. It's annoying that none of these realizations materialized when I was 16 or 26 when my body-esteem was forming.

Lockerroom tattoo revelations are fun, aren't they. :-) I say that as an observer, not an inkee.

Mo'nonymous

#2  30 January 2006 - 05:21

 

Little water bug! Reading this post, I feel like I'm there!

(clonk)

Mo'nonymous

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