The Swimmer

A man on the beach walks parallel to the shore, knee deep in the water. A wave crashes into his legs, and he stumbles toward the shore, but he again moves back to the knee deep of the water. He continues on this path for a while, the wave crashing, him stumbling, and subsequently regaining his footing.

Eventually, the ocean produces a wave far too large for him to bear. It crashes into his body and he falls completely over, pushed against his will to the shore. As he regains his footing, a beach-goer who was looking at him struggling against the water for a while comes up to him.

She asks: "Why not come closer to the shore, so that you don't have to stumble? It would be easier to simply walk upon the soft sand. Are you afraid of the shore?"

Of course, he wasn't afraid of the shore; he simply never considered it. So he obliged her, and walked closer to the shore with her for a while. A frown began to show across his face. Soon, he said: "Yes, this is so much easier. But now this feels wrong. I have walked in the water for so long, that this beach is feels too soft and easy to walk upon."

The man walked away and continued to walk knee deep in the water. Once again, a large wave hit him, and threw him closer to the shore. Then a swimmer returned from the water and came up next to him, and pulled him up from the ground. He said "Why are you still walking here, against the will of the waves? You go against both your own nature and that of the ocean! Come here with me."

And so the man walked with the swimmer toward the ocean. At first, he walked knee deep as he did before. The waves hit, and he struggled. And then to his waist. The waves began to strike his face and he had to turn his body to the shore.

The man yelled in the surf: "I can't do this, the waves have become too high! The beach-goer was right, and I must walk closer to the shore." The swimmer said: "Only the man who holds himself to the ground will feel the pain of the wave. To tread within the water, you must be able to let go of the ground."

And so the man took a deep breath, and went deeper, until his shoulders met the water line, and he let the ocean lift him off the ground. He began to swim until, had he stopped, his feet could no longer touch the ocean floor.

He then oriented himself parallel to the shore, and began to swim with the swimmer. As the waves came he was lifted by them, and as they went he fell. He was one with the ocean, and could no longer be thrown by it.