Swimming in July

You might think I like it, fishing, after more than ten years’ work with hunting and fishing people—on the contrary. Especially in winter. Waiting for hours in the cold. Telling yourself they will bite, even when nothing is happening at all. Sticking at it, even when nothing goes on happening. Why does no one ever talk about this? I wonder, rebelli

As Csikszentmihalyi asserts in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, flow is “the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”

The art of swimming – she supposed like any art – was about purity. The more focused you were on the activity, the less focused you were on everything else. You kind of stopped being you and became the thing you were doing.

Please note that my friend did not quit her job, did not sell her home, did not sever all her relationships and move to Toronto to study seventy hours a week with an exacting Olympic-level skating coach. And no, this story does not end with her winning any championship medals. It doesn’t have to. In fact, this story does not end at all, because Sus