Icelandic Diversion

I am sitting in my wife’s room in the rehabilitation hospital while she is off undergoing therapy of one kind or another. A short while ago, after she was wheeled away for her two back-to-back sessions, I wandered through the BBC website and found an intriguing video about Icelanders’ “free spirit.” Actually, the video was about Icelanders’ attachment to swimming and swimming pools, but someone in the video suggested a connection with free-spiritedness.

The fact that people must strip down to being “almost naked,” as one character said, equalizes people. Near nudity (but not really…their swim suits cover more of their bodies than most of the ones we see in this country) does not permit assertions of status; even cell phones must be left out of the pool area.

One of the people interviewed for the story suggested that swimming pools are almost required in Icelandic communities. I’ll try to remember her words: “In small communities, you have a church, a museum, and a swimming pool.” In context, that suggests that swimming pools equate to Ray Oldenburg’s “third places.” I definitely can buy that. It’s not just swimming pools, either. It’s hot tubs that provide the hot contrast to the cold ocean swim (or simply to the cold air).

Though I’ve never been an aficionado of hot tubs, I think I could become one if I were an Icelander. We had a nice hot tub years ago, when we lived in Arlington (TX). I spent quite a bit of time in that hot, restorative water. I suspect that hot tub (or any other one, for that matter) would do wonders for my tight neck and shoulder muscles. But strong and willing hands would be more likely to loosen this damn tightness, both in my muscles and in my mind.

For some odd reason, I keep drifting, as if I could fall asleep as I type these words. “As if,” like hell. I have fallen asleep within the past two paragraphs. So I’d better stop before my head hits the keyboard.

About John Swinburn

"Love not what you are but what you may become."― Miguel de Cervantes
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3 Responses to Icelandic Diversion

  1. Pleasantly Intoxicated Swimmer says:

    Judge me, if you will… You shall not find me lacking!

  2. Judge not, lest ye be judged. Oh, beer, well that’s okay, then. 😉

  3. Pleasantly Intoxicated Swimmer says:

    Vicki misses our pool & hot tub in Dallas… Surprisingly, I do as well… Of course, everyone was judged in my pool; just on the beer they drank!!!

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