Monday, July 21, 2014

"That's the way it's done." ~ Open-water swimmer

And now one has escaped in San Diego
Some things are difficult; especially those things that aren't easy...

We have been on quite a journey here at Team Beyond-Avalon, attempting, with our limited organizational experience, to pull off something as daring as swimming 75 miles in deep water. And to assemble 12 capable swimmers, who are not afraid of the night, and are willing to swim in pelagic waters among the top predators in the sea, has been just the first challenge among many. 

Over the past few months, each time we sat back and said "What an amazing team of extraordinary individuals we have assembled," we, not long after, found one or another of the team members either didn't really understand the mission, or didn't understand their limitations. "A man's got to know his limitations."

The early efforts to recruit for the team brought the usual suspects: accomplished open-water swimmers with the swimming equivalent of a curriculum vitae that left us saying: "Who are we to say 'no' to someone of that caliber?" Those early casualties, once coming to understand that we weren't so much about swimming, but about honoring those who have sacrificed so much for us, were taken quickly.

Those who didn't know their own limits brought about the next round of aquatic chairs; and there is truly no shame in finding absolute darkness in shark-infested waters an intimidating prospect.

The most damaging of changes endured by the core team came as a result of an apparent complete lack of understanding--or worse--regarding the method behind the mission, combined with a presumption that what we were doing was just another swim that, surely, would look like all the others; thus, the lament: "That's the way it's done."

That unfortunate casualty brought about what appeared to be a planned chain reaction, a fissioning of the nucleus. Team Hiroshima. Being a particularly devastating day of losses for the team, I got into the Pacific and swam one hour in memoriam for each of those lost, realizing that changes this late in the game are potentially catastrophic to our stated goal, and meant some deserving veteran, somewhere, wouldn't be served by the funds we wouldn't raise.

When I returned to shore, five hours later, I put my feet down in chest-deep water and stood up, only to find myself face to face with a rubber duck (below). Though weathered, sun-bleached, and coated with the detritrus of humankind's industrial castoffs, it made me smile, as it reminded me of why there are still "roads" untraveled. From the television series Touch, in the episode entitled "Gyre":

In 1992 a shipping container fell overboard on its way from China to the United States, releasing 29,000 rubber ducks into the Pacific Ocean. Ten months later, the first of these rubber ducks washed ashore on the Alaskan coast. Since then, these ducks have been found in Hawaii, South America, Australia, and even inside the Arctic ice. But two thousand of the ducks were caught up in the North Pacific Gyre, a vortex of currents spinning between Japan, the U.S. west coast, Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands. Atoms that get caught in the gyre tend to stay in the gyre, doomed to travel the same path, forever circling the same waters. But not always. Their paths can be altered by a change in the weather, a storm at sea, or a chance encounter with a pod of whales. Twenty years after the rubber ducks were lost at sea, they’re still arriving along beaches around the world, and the number of ducks in the gyre has decreased, which means, it is possible to break free. Even after years of circling the same waters, it’s possible to find their way to shore.

When I got home, ostensible gyre-escapee in hand, I found a message informing me that we had two new members: accomplished swimmers, kayakers, and long-time lifeguards, was just the beginning of their qualifications. John is a U.S. Army veteran, and he and his wife, Michelle, are serious about social service, having started their own non-profit, in which they spend their time volunteering in Mexico, teaching underprivileged children water safety and how to swim. Again, that is just the beginning...

A little later in the evening I was contacted by perhaps the most famous open-water swim organizer known to most Americans who swim open-water today. He and his team had become aware of our efforts, applauded them, and guided us to design our swim in accordance with our goals and the greatest possible safety for the team at sea. And for that gift, I must say: Thank you all, primarily, for increasing our odds of achieving our goal safely, but, equally, for the spiritual lift the team experienced in feeling our efforts to support deserving veterans have been sanctioned by "the best there ever was." Though, let me be clear: there is no guarantee of safe passage when nakedly entering an environment where one is no longer at the top of the food chain; there is always a risk involved, regardless of having taken all the precautions of those who have successfully gone before. And should The Sea decide that one or another inhabitant should prevail when we enter Her territory, we hope that it is us, and we understand that only we are responsible for what happens out there. Nobody, no matter how well informed, cautious, and prepared, can say "no" when The Sea says "Oh, but yes."

Though having arrived "here," with an extraordinary team and the advice of the accomplished, there have been some significant mistakes. And all said and done, I am the culprit behind every disappointment the team has been forced to endure: Intimidated by the innumerable accomplishments of so many who have expressed an interest in participating in our mission, I have failed to be explicit, demanding, clear in what we are doing and how we are doing it; for fear of insulting or losing people that I had not imagined we would have the opportunity to call team members. Due to those errors of omission, lack of leadership, and, perhaps, cowardice on my part, we have lost some truly exceptional people that, had they just known the architecture of our efforts, may have joined us in brainstorming a path to a common vision that addressed the primary goal.

But that said, for all my mistakes, the goal of supporting our heroes is so abundantly worthy, we have found that there are no rules, no stone tablets weighing us down, and the team continues to exceed my expectations by another unfathomable measure every time we enlist a new recruit. So, to those who say: "That's the way it's done," I say: 

This is how it's not done "that way."  
This duck is free.
Actual Rubber Duck!
Found July 21, 2014
South Mission Beach, CA




Saturday, July 12, 2014

El Niño Tiene "A" Temperatura


The letter "A" 
This balmy July's night-swim was "indundated" by a sea of concepts that washed over us via an alphabet soup that seems to have forgone the luxury of choice: A-nomolous temperature; AAA; Type A ; and a big wave out of fric*in-A nowhere!

The night began with our meeting along the Avenida De La Playa, the street leading to the area on La Jolla Shores beach which is known as the "boat launch," but don't try to launch a real boat from the sandy end: kayaks and their nuclear family only.

Dan Simonelli offered our first "A" of the night. As all were ready to enter the water at approximately 8:15 pm, he was the last to close a door on a vehicle; unfortunately, being the last, knowing that others are waiting on you, often distracts from the little details.  Dan: "Oh f*&!," he groaned, just after he slammed the car door shut, leaving the keys inside. "AAA?" "It'll be twenty minutes." It was thirty.

In A-ccordance with the building theme, as yet unknown to us, John and Shannon accidentally nurtured it along: We'll take category "A" for Another lost key; this one easily found in the grass by a gracious guest by the name of Carlos Lopez, a friend of Dan Simonelli's who is visiting from Mexico City, and a guy who is one of five elite swimmers that will swim 35K across a shark-owned bay in the deep south of Baja in October. It is a good thing he is acutely aware of his environment--to the point that he knew where that key was when John realized it was missing: "It's on the grass over there." Thank you Carlos.

Next up. "A" for: "Fric*en-A! Where'd that wave come from!" After spending a half hour under the bright street lights of Avenida De La Playa, we waded into the Pacific, a very dark place when looking out to sea--at night: you look into the sun for 30 minutes, then step into an unlit closet and close the door. We couldn't see darkness, never mind anything resembling shapes. And putting a kayak in the ocean without being able to see the kayak, the  ocean, yourself, or even your imagination of what you are doing, let Mother Nature assault us with a wave,  and wham! There goes John, the kayak, and any sense that we were in control of the evening.

Recovery and "embarkation." Once in deeper water, kayak and John recovered, the letter "A" bathed us in its essence once more: "Wow! This water is like...hot!" Anomalous temperature it was: never below 75.6 F! We could have swum to Avalon Bay that night--if  it didn't take 36 hours to do--and never felt a chill; I think Shannon was tempted. We all know she could do it if we let her; maybe she just has to suggest she wants to...

Never enough "A's" in the average night-swim, we all left with one more in mind: "Type A." And that is to say, John and Shannon Welter--that they have the same name isn't because they don't find things in common--expressed their opinions on the details of the planning that have been left up to those of us who started this endeavour: "Details? Oh, that stuff will work itself out." That just wasn't going to do for two people as successful and competent as they are. To paraphrase their ever-politically correct and generous way of handling those of us who rely on good fortune to get the job done: "Maybe we could add a little definition to the amorphous mass of what it is we think we are doing." Of course, they were much more generous in their restraint.

Thus, the only thing that didn't evoke an "A" for the evening was our grade; perhaps "B." But due to the fantastic 2-mile swim we all shared in Tropics-like waters, under a near-full moon which we never saw due to the cloud cover, and the fact that we did it together, in unison, while laughing, and with great appreciation for the magical experience of what we were sharing, no lower than "B". Never mind. We deserve another "A" for that recovery. A!

All setbacks aside, what a team! Every setback ignored; every generous gift of the Pacific exulted in. We had a great time and emerged from the sea, satisfied, satiated, and ever more sure that something was right about this coterie of swimmers that has come together with great passion, in an attempt to make the lives of those who make ours possible, at least a little bit better.

Q.E.D.
Team in A-ttendance: Revered Guest, Carlos Lopez; Dan Henry, Dan Simonelli, John Welter, Lee Grove, and Shannon Welter.


Thursday, June 26, 2014

Friday, May 30, 2014

Look Mommy! It’s a Merman!

~New Moon Over La Jolla~
I suppose it was a perfectly reasonable conclusion in the mind of the four-year-old girl who, sitting not twenty-five yards away, dining by candlelight on the patio of the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club with her extended family, watched the strange creature, body of a man, red-neoprene head, big plastic eyes, and a rainbow swirl of colors flashing from its ears (multi-colored night light), emerge from the dark waters onto the beach before her. What didn’t seem entirely reasonable was the response of her grandmother: Jumping up from the dinner table and rushing onto the beach to see what the sea had borne: “Are you a merman! Where do you come from?” Come, came…I couldn’t resist the tense error: “I come from the sea and I come in peace. Take me to your leader.”
How a 4-year-old sees a swimmer emerge from the darkness?

After a shared laugh, she, realizing what she had said and still infinitely curious: “I mean, where did you start?” And, thus, another night swim at the Cove offers up an unforgettable experience.

After a few minutes of chatting with the highly animated and most amiable woman about sharks, the differences between bravery, bravado, acceptance and resignation; charities, and a seemingly insane group of people that are going to swim 75 miles at sea in hopes of making the lives of a few of America’s Wounded Warriors at least a little bit better, the “merman” strode off into the darkness to be reunited with his kind, just as they swam ashore some hundred yards north at the boat launch.

And in the mind of the grandmother who sees the same.
While the weekly night swim wasn’t meant to be done solo (I swam ahead and in a different direction), it almost seems as if the sea requires some breaking of the rules now and then; not following the plan. And for those who have never experienced solo swimming at sea, there are only a couple of Earthly experiences that compare…   And when the Great Mother puts away Her sun and moon, scatters Her stars across the blackness of space, and warms Her waters to a therapeutic  70°,  well...it is difficult to know where the sea ends and the swimmer begins; and there is no place I would rather be.

Beyond Avalon, there is a healing

Team Members in attendance: Dan Henry, Lee Grove, Penny Nagel

Special thanks to Penny, who doubled her swim by putting glow sticks on the B buoy earlier in the day. 

Sunday, May 25, 2014

One Way?

Unfortunately, I am not a believer in destiny. There is just no good reason for it to exist...no reason to make anything so complicated when the humans it was meant to be perpetrated upon aren't.

Fortunately, I am inconsistent, the victim of metabolism, the chemical processes of the body (mind, being an integrated consequence). And today I thanked...the periodic table?--for one of those moments when I wanted to believe, needed to believe.

I awoke this morning, the day before Memorial Day, to my normal routine: computer on; coffee maker on; rinse the eyes, dust off the teeth; password into computer; coconut oil, butter, cinnamon and baker's chocolate into the coffee; blend and settle in for the morning's news:
Seven Dead, Twenty Injured in California Mass Murder 
Obama in Afghanistan
Dozens die in Nigeria Attacks
North and South Korea Trade Fire
Man in Coma After Being Beaten by Gang in Kanagawa
Ad Infinitum...
And then I read this:
Man Catches Falling Baby, and I thought, Thank You! I needed that. Everybody needs that.
Humanity at its best. And, in my mind, there was a bigger story within this story: the opportunity to do good, the right thing, wasn't offered up by the worst humanity has to offer: the mistakes and misdeeds that are inflicted upon the masses by misguided individuals in positions of power. No, the darkest possible forces that lay at the origin of this opportunity to do right may simply have been some level of parental negligence; maybe not. Babies are slippery things. Duct tape and Velcro were insufficient to secure the last little bugger I babysat. (I no longer babysit: parents are so picky.) But here was a moment that inspired me to Google thebrightside.com as I was thinking, would the world be such a bad place if everyone, every morning awoke to The Bright Side of things, a news service that told nothing but the stories of good deeds and good people? Maybe it exists. Everything else exists in Google search! The results of that Google search shook my belief in non-belief. Those of you on the Beyond Avalon team will surely find value in what sat atop the webpage before me: The Wounded Warrior Project, not our choice for this benefit, but having a focus similar to the more financially efficient organization we've chosen:


Of course there is irony in finding purpose through destruction. And what is known as The Contrast Doctrine (no cold without hot; good without bad), sadly, seems to be the inevitable defining characteristic of human mental existence. 

Maybe there is a path. Maybe I'm on it...along with you.


Saturday, May 24, 2014

Where's Dan?

We didn't plan to lose one of our teammates at sea on our weekly night swim in La Jolla Cove. Things don't always go according to plan...