Books: “We We Swim” by Bonnie Tsui

I saved reading this book until pools re-opened here in Singapore. My last training for Master’s club I attended was December, even prior to Covid. Previously, with each swim I was pushing myself harder – to be faster, more efficient.  The fun wore off and I started hitting ‘dismiss’ on the alarm more often. The pandemic has forced us all to slow down and re-assess priorities. This is when I realized something fundamental had gone amiss with my own swimming. It was a good time to read, “Why We Swim.”

The book takes a deep dive (pun intended) in answering the titular question. Early on Tsui recalls her participation in an Icelandic 6k race to commemorate an impossible feat of a sailor who survived swimming in freezing waters after his ship had sunk. Of her own swim, Tsui writes, “I finish with one lap each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle, just to mix it up, just to show I am still in good form. An hour and fifty minutes after I begin, I’m done”

 Oh, she threw it down!

Anyone who swims at that pace has spent hours upon hours staring down at that black line – doing laps, drills, and attending competitions. In dark and chilly wee hours of the morning, and then some. At some point, you question, why do I swim? This is not just an extended article for her where she poses a click-bait question (for swimmers anyways). This was personal.

Tsui is humbled by the human determination that can overcome daunting adversity, and there are some truly incredible stories of swimmers. The journalist in the novelist comes out, and Tsui strikes an easy balance between her investigative style and story-telling prose. But mostly it is this genuine awareness of the purity of water, and its effects on our body and soul, that touches the core.

For myself, the book has helped me let go of the more competitive side of the sport, allowing me to go back to what I love most about swimming; just being in the water. I resumed training this past Saturday. I was tickled at being welcomed back by the old group.  We went out for wanton noodles, sugar cane juice and runny eggs at a nearby food centre – a well-earned breakfast. I will go again next week.

Thank you, Bonnie, for bringing back to me a lost love.  

“We take a breath. We hold. We pull, and glide. We take another breath. In between breaths, the thinking happens – about each stroke, each kick, each breath. As we become better swimmers, there is less conscious thinking about swimming and our thoughts are released, free to wander as they may. All the while, the body works. We notice things: how the water moves, what the temperature is like, whether the swimming feels easy or difficult. We are at once hyper-aware and loosed from our bodily constraints.”

“The tides keep changing, twice a day. Water is in a forever state of flux. To swim is to witness metamorphosis, in our environment, in ourselves. To swim is to accept all the myriad conditions of life.”