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A review by sjgrodsky
Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui
3.0
This short bit about three-time Olympian swimmer Dara Torres is what I found most memorable:
“Here is a woman so competitive that she floors it at a green light, she confesses to me, so other cars can’t get in front of her” (Page 161).
I have seen drivers like Dara. I watch in bafflement as they spring away, wasting gas, abusing their car, polluting the air.
Now, knowing that they want to be ahead of me because they are “competitive,” I am even more baffled. It’s a competition if I am trying to win against you. It’s a competition if our cars are evenly matched in their acceleration ability. But neither applies most of the time. At a stop light, “winning” against me proves nothing.
I have the feeling that Dara Torres knows this on some level, but can’t help herself.
Well, now I understand those noisy SUV drivers a little better: as people trapped by their competitive personalities. I might feel sympathy if I found their behavior less annoying.
The other character described here, though briefly, was a 94 year old man who still swam a mile every day.
Now that is something I can aspire to.
BTW, I don’t swim every day and I swim far less than a mile when I do. But I get the takeaway: exercise = longer life.
“Here is a woman so competitive that she floors it at a green light, she confesses to me, so other cars can’t get in front of her” (Page 161).
I have seen drivers like Dara. I watch in bafflement as they spring away, wasting gas, abusing their car, polluting the air.
Now, knowing that they want to be ahead of me because they are “competitive,” I am even more baffled. It’s a competition if I am trying to win against you. It’s a competition if our cars are evenly matched in their acceleration ability. But neither applies most of the time. At a stop light, “winning” against me proves nothing.
I have the feeling that Dara Torres knows this on some level, but can’t help herself.
Well, now I understand those noisy SUV drivers a little better: as people trapped by their competitive personalities. I might feel sympathy if I found their behavior less annoying.
The other character described here, though briefly, was a 94 year old man who still swam a mile every day.
Now that is something I can aspire to.
BTW, I don’t swim every day and I swim far less than a mile when I do. But I get the takeaway: exercise = longer life.