The Melding Of Perspectives And Personalities In The Open Water
Like two people who just got married or two roommates who just moved in together, the patterns of daily existence are the melding to two different perspectives and personalities.
One spouse may enjoy brewing coffee in the morning while the other drinks tea. One roommate may enjoy flopping on the couch to watch television while the other flips on the computer. Their contrasts do not necessarily bother them, they become coherently settled in their mutually distinctive ways. They may compromise on some differences and they may not settle on other contrasts.
It is the same with open water swimming. Join a group of swimmers on the shore for the first time and your expectations of how to swim and where to swim may be different. How you settle your differences the first time and every time thereafter is interesting to note.
Do you stretch? If so, how long? Do you talk endlessly before getting in or do you dive right in? Do you start right on time or wait for the last person in the group to start, no matter how long the delay? Do you start off at the pace of the slowest swimmer or do you strive to keep up with the fastest? Do you swim on the left side of your swimming buddies – or the right side? Who leads, if anyone? Do you go out to coffee afterwards or go to breakfast with everyone only on weekends? Do you ask an attractive member of the group out or is dating among workout partners frowned upon? Do you suggest new places to swim or do you simply go along with the crowd?
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