A BRIEF TALE: I was seven years old my younger sister five. It was our first trip to Lake Erie, and my first time experiencing a body of water larger than a river. I had never seen an ocean, and when we arrived at a town called Geneva-On-The-Lake in Ohio, I was mesmerized, amazed, and in total AWE! My parents explained that this was a Lake, smaller than the ocean, but just as much fun. Holy Cow, this lake was so large it touched the horizon. Life was good at the age of seven, I actually discovered (at least for me) a wonder of the world! My father explained to my little sister and me that we would walk about ten feet into the water. At first, he said, he would carry us, explaining that there was a drop in the sand, and the water might be deep, but in a few minutes, he would put us down as within Lake Erie, there was something called a SAND BAR. It was the magic of the Lake, he added, a way for kids to enjoy the water safely! My Dad was never one to disappoint, so whatever he said, I knew was true. We were out about ten feet, and the horizon seemed to expand, as did the distance to the shore, but as my father told us, my little sister and I were standing…STANDING IN A LAKE, (and even though I had little idea what ten feet measured) WE WERE IN TH MIDDLE OF LAKE, as far as I was concerned. And then, out of nowhere, the sandbar (whatever that was) disappeared and in what seemed a matter of seconds, I was underwater. I had no idea what happened, but instinctively knew I needed to breathe. This happened a long time ago for me, so minutes may have been seconds, seconds may have been nanoseconds, but as I remember it I was drowning; as in all I heard was “it will be alright, don’t worry.” My father scooped me up, and held me so high I thought I could touch the sky. My sister was in one hand, I in the other, and all I remember was my father, kissing me, and my sister, and kissing us again and again!
A REMINDER:
Today, I had a kind of ‘Whack on the side of the head’ as I read the headlines for Sunday, July 31, 2022. I permit myself about 10 minutes to read, scream what the fuck, read, holler, how the Hell, read and remorsefully, read and woefully SIGH. But today, for some reason, my experience at Geneva-On-The-Lake, Ohio came slamming into me a might a trailer truck jack-knifing on a Highway. I became even more apprehensive and fearful, and that knot of anxiety tried to cut off my gut. And then the ‘Whack on the side of the head’! I suddenly realized that the current events of the year 2022, reminded me of my time in Lake Erie…and Lo and Behold, I had this FEAR OF DROWNING…a suffocating, dismal dull ache…but this time no one told me it would be alright!
