Summer, Swimming Pool Dreams

July 26, 2020,

Visions of underwater magical worlds can come to life when we are swimming.

Depending upon your poison, as the expression goes, you might prefer your swimming adventure in the ocean, lake or river. As for us?

We prefer the swimming pool.

Aqua blue and filled with mystery. There, the only monsters we have to be afraid of are in our heads. In those other watery wonderlands, the predators can be very real. Too, the depth in our blue fairytale goes about 6 feet.

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We can handle that.

Those other outdoor water deeps can go very, very deep.

An associate once related a story where he knew of a friend and his buddy that went deep sea diving off of the coast of San Diego on a beautiful sunny day. They were having a great time when he swam a little further out, looked back and didn’t see his friend. He swam around some more looking for him and saw nothing.

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About ten minutes later he saw this huge shark swim by with his friend in its mouth. The shark swished by moving into deeper water and he never saw his friend again.

Very true and eerie accounting.

Based upon stories like that, we will take the pool any day.

They certainly have been in inspiration at the movies. We’ve enjoyed many of them.

Especially on Netflix.

The film Swimming Pool is filled with all of the fantasy elements that we love. Here is the storyline.

Writer Sarah uses her publisher's vacation home for a breather. But when the publisher's promiscuous daughter arrives, Sarah is swept into her world.

Swept indeed.

Here is another take on it.

When uptight British writer Sarah Morton (Charlotte Rampling) has difficulty with her new detective novel, her publisher, John Bosload (Charles Dance), sends her to his French country home to unwind.

It takes a while but once Sarah warms up to her new surroundings, her peace and quiet is interrupted by the arrival of her publisher’s beautiful young daughter, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), a sensuous and uninhibited young French girl.

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Imagine that.

Generational difference and all, the two initially clash but eventually form an unlikely bond.

A handsome man soon comes into the picture and, to put it mildly, things change forever.

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Here are two reviews.

Mr. Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald surmises, “Swimming Pool offers something few other movies this summer can match: A dreamy, intoxicating sensuality.”

Indeed. Let’s take another dip.

The team of experts at rogerebert.com analyze, “Swimming Pool is more of a conventional thriller. After it is over, you will want to go back and think things through again.”

We sure did.

How much of it was real and how much of it was, well, something surreal?

That’s the beauty of swimming in the pool. Much of the decisions about what is real and fantasy is up to you.

Your dreams can come true in the pool.

Just travel to Calcutta and you can see that is true as well.

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Koni is a national award-winning Bengali movie released in 1984 directed by Saroj Dey, starring Soumitra Chatterjee and Sriparna Banerjee.

This film is an adaptation of a Bengali novel by the same name written by Moti Nandi.

The film is about a girl living in the Calcutta slums, who with help of her coach triumph over poverty and hardships. The film's lead actress Sriparna Banerjee was also a professional swimmer herself in the 1970s and at the time of casting a student of Jadavpur University.

In a 2012 interview, veteran actor, Soumitra Chatterjee, called Koni one of the best films of his career. He even recalled using film's catch-phrase "Fight-Koni-fight" in hard times, as a chant to himself to lift his "aging spirits". The phrase had become popular with middle-class Bengalis at the time.

Koni is an inspirational story of a coach and his trainee Koni who fight all odds to achieve their dreams.

Khidda (Soumitra Chatterjee) is a swimming coach who teaches swimming to underprivileged kids. He picks Kony (character played by Sriparna Banerjee) from a slum of Calcutta and grooms her to be part of the Bengal Swimming team to compete at the National Swimming Championship. However, politics, poverty and social stigma emerges as distinct roadblocks in their path.

It usually does.

Which now brings up the question during the current pandemic. How safe is to go back to the swimming pool?

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has some thoughts on preventative measures.

To maintain healthy environments, operators of public aquatic venues may consider:

Cleaning and disinfection

Cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces at least daily and shared objects each time they are used. For example:

- Handrails, slides, and structures for climbing or playing
- Lounge chairs, tabletops, pool noodles, and kickboards
- Door handles and surfaces of restrooms, handwashing stations, diaper-changing stations, and showers

Well, that is a good start.

They add, “We all share the water in which we swim. That means each of us needs to do our part to help keep ourselves, our families, and our friends healthy. To help protect yourself and those you care about, here are a few easy and effective steps all swimmers can take each time we swim, play, or relax in the water. Well-maintained pools, hot tubs/spas, and water playgrounds are less likely to spread germs.

There is no evidence that the virus that causes COVID-19 can be spread to people through the water in pools, hot tubs, spas, or water play areas. Proper operation and maintenance (including disinfection with chlorine and bromine) of these facilities should inactivate the virus in the water.”

We are now reassured.

It is time to saunter off to dreamland.

We can continue to swim in the aqua blue pools and enjoy our fantasies as we glide beneath the surface. Dreams certainly can still come true if you swim long enough. If there is ever a time we needed to immerse ourselves in our aqua blue dreams it is now.