the old swimmin' hole

the other night ck and i decided it had been far too long since we'd done something fun together and made a swimming date. we had it all planned - it was a perfect hot morning, and ck was going to call me as work was wrapping up and we'd meet out at the point, hyde park's answer to "what is there to do in hyde park, anyway?" mb got excited at the prospect of company for swimming in lake michigan, and ck recruited msbikemyers to join us, and it would have been a regular swimming party just like we were kids... and we pinky-swore not to tell bikemyers that it was a party, who had agreed unknowingly to stay home in charge of littlebikemyers...

except that the perfect hot day turned into a grey hot day which turned into a grey cold windy day. mb, ck, msbikemyers and i all arrived at the point, and some of us decided we were more interested in sitting along the rocky shore admiring the chicago skyline than in actual exercise. mb, of course, was not in that group of "some of us," and off he went. mb is a good swimmer, but it was so choppy out there that for us on shore it was like dolphin watching: "where is he?" "i don't see him." "wait, there he is! look, he just shot up into the air!" "ooooh! oh, wait.. where is he now?"

as mb got out of the water, we all packed up, grateful to not be caught in a rainstorm, since the sky was almost black by this point... and were promptly deluged not by storm water, but by a throng of pre-teen boys charging toward the water and stomping on our things in that innocently oblivious way that only pre-teen boys can do. behind them was a group of adults, one of whom, carrying a bible, announced to us, "we're having a baptism!"

it is almost sundown, it is windy, the waves are high, the water is deep, and the bottom of the lake is rocky. there is NO amount of adult supervision that would have made me feel comfortable with those kids at that baptism. undeterred, the ringleader was staking out his place on a flat slippery rock not two feet from the lake. the boys, delighted, were rushing out to be near him. msbikemyers, ck, mb and i left. i just didn't want to know.

as i told bikemyers later (who i think was secretly amused that our secret swimming party had been stymied), i believe that jesus saves as much as anyone. but i am not interested in testing salvation with idiocy.