swimming lessons

My mother is fond of recalling that I once wanted to become a fish. As a kid, I was a beach bum, and once, I even developed a fever because I stayed too long under the oppressive Philippine sun. A decade and a few years later, however, here I am, afraid of even stepping into large bodies of water because my legs are scarred and chapped owing to all my depilatory cream experiments, and I'm still suffering a horrible case of bacne. Puberty was rougher on me than on most kids, and I can't remember the last time I went to the beach - blame it on my constantly rebonded "delicate" hair. So I guess today's swimming trip was the long-awaited break from my hiatus, eh?

After a trip to Masada earlier this morning, my family and I - along with some rowdy friends of my mum's - trooped to the Dead Sea to fulfill my father's wish of floating there just for the heck of it. To be honest, I've seen better; nothing beats Camiguin's White Island. I still had fun though, mainly because the adults I was with were whacko. Here's proof of how much I enjoyed myself:

As much as I enjoyed floating around though (I can't swim, so it was nice to pretend like I could) I found myself wishing the people around me had a great time, too. I'm not talking about my cohorts - 'cause they were busy sowing disaster in the beach for fun just as I was. Twas the locals and the other tourists I was worried about. It seemed to me that swimming in the Dead Sea was, for them, nothing spectacular. And maybe it's not as breathtaking as say, foiling a terrorist attack just in the nick of time, but really! They were just floating around with emotionless masks for faces! Not one genuinely happy smile!

My assessment is that the Israelis think of the beach as a place for sunbathing, socializing, and introducing one's beloved dog to seawater. They don't think of it as a place to relax, a place to have fun, a place to laugh, to make noise, to let go of all inhibitions and to just be. I never really liked noisy people, and there were even times I detested OFW's for talking loudly everywhere. But seeing these foreigners walking around looking as if there's nothing more to life than getting some passable tan lines, I'm happy I'm a citizen of beach nation. I'm happy to be Filipino.