bplusultra

So I'm at the river right now, at 10:00pm watching ducks. Apparently, ducks have a strict bedtime. Ducks go to sleep at ten, and they sleep while floating in the river. I thought that they usually slept on the shore but I guess I was wrong. As my accomplice lays drunken in the grass next to me, I'm watching these ducks and thinking about swimming. The weird thing about swimming long distances is that the more you try, the harder it's going to be for you. As my aquatic life-coach, Xsntt tells me repeatedly: "swimming is 90% just learning how to NOT freak out!". I remember when he was first trying to teach me what he called "the dead-man's hang". "It doesn't have a very reassuring name", I thought, as he began to demonstrate a maneuver which was to be used for resting, should one get winded while nowhere near a shore. The technique involves holding your breath while letting your body sink to its neutrally buoyant height in the water, where the very top if your head is the only thing poking out of the water. So you basically just "hang" there in that position and relax to a meditative state, using almost no extra energy which allows you to rest your muscles. Momentary sleep can even be achieved in this state.

So basically, the way to save your own life is to pretend that you're already dead. I can feel that this concept will become profoundly useful in other areas of life, and I look forward to finding new ways to relinquish control to the universe. I want to be like these ducks, dreaming while my body floats to the whim of the river. Is this what religions often refer to as "faith"? I think so. But I think it goes deeper than that.