What Lies Beneath

Now I'm swimming more front crawl, I think I need to examine my reluctance to open my eyes when my head's underwater. In the pool there's no problem, I like looking at the tiles below me and seeing the bubbles when I breathe.

In lakes, however - a different story. I love swimming outside, but the thought of what I might see if I peer into the depths of the water is what unnerves me. Maybe I watched too much Scooby Doo or something when I was little. On TV shows what the water conceals is always bound to be scary, otherwise the viewers would get bored and change the channel, wouldn't they?  However life's not like that. Or is it??

I found this interesting piece about the work of  police divers. To my mind, their job must be a nightmare. In the article, an officer says that one of the most satisfying aspects of his job is finding dead bodies, so that grieving relatives are able to have closure. I can't imagine how scary that must be - well I can, but those are exactly the kind of fears I try to keep in check, particularly in the middle of a lake.

Breaking the silence

When I was little I liked watching Stingray on our black and white TV - I just loved the storylines that featured Marina. For one thing because she was a girl, and incredibly glamorous, for another because of the way she seemed to float through the water - jerky, but strangely graceful, all at once!

I hadn't realised why she was silent, until recently I read this passage on internationalhero.co.uk about Marina and her people:

..........Marina was a native of the undersea city of Pacifica, the daughter of its ruler Aphony. Pacifica was menaced by the evil Titan. Marina, along with the rest of the inhabitants, had been sworn to silence by the villain, on pain of being destroyed if they spoke, and so they used gestures to communicate instead...........

The explanation for Marina's silence struck a chord with me, and set me thinking about my process around creative writing. I love writing and yet.....sometimes it's as if I believe I'll be destroyed if I voice my thoughts this way. Or rather, my impulse is to destroy what I've written before anyone has a chance to read it. This started to change a couple of years ago when I began writing poetry. This blog is another opportunity for me to confront that impulse. I won't be menaced by that evil Titan any longer.