As I've mentioned may times before my friend and I have started going to disabled swim at our local (indoor, because I'm a wimp) pool. Within twelve months I have gone from a very poor, verging on non-swimmer to a fairly regular but very proud thirty full lengths in about an hour. The life guards are always really happy to help and put a separate lane in for me and my friend. The trouble is we seem to have stumbled in on a disabled 'click' group. So the first week we went there was already a lane set up on the opposite side of the pool away from all the other disabled swimmers, this seemed perfect as I cant see on comers and am unable to manage unpredictability in other humans when I'm in the water. So, the life guards were happy for me and my mate to take this lane so we cracked on and managed about eight lengths. Disabled swim is from 6pm until 7pm and that particular week we did more chatting than swimming. Anyway, we did attract a lot of interest from the other swimmers but no-one really approached us or said hello. I'm actually happy with that, I go to swim when I know its safe, if I want to chat I'll go join the queue at the post office, besides my friend and I had already wasted enough time chin wagging.
The following week was a bit different, the lane was set up again and as we went to use it, a couple of lady swimmers barked at us that 'David was coming' so I couldn't use that lane. Again, the life guards had no problems popping in another lane and all seemed good. David was guided in by another life guard who took his cane at the poolside and helped him in. Once in the water he was like a local celebrity, all these women clucking around him like hens. This man seemed very polite and chatted to everyone, then he was off. I swear if you saw this man in the water you would never know he was blind, he swam up and down the lane like a fish and covered our ten lengths which had taken us nearly an hour in about three minutes. The next few weeks we found that the ladies, as soon as they saw us, would start talking loudly amongst themselves about whether or not David was coming. To me, this definitely felt like a warning directed to me and my mate to keep out of the 'blind mans lane'. Of course I have absolutely no problem with not being in that particular lane especially as there is no problem getting one put in for us, but I do have a problem with people thinking I am invisible and deaf! These women are crazily so over protective of this man that it is verging on the side of discrimination. I, although I am also blind, do not deserve to swim in the lane which has the pool edge. In fact if its a safety issue, we would be safer if we swapped lanes because he swims so quickly he often hits his hand on the wall, whereas I can only manage breast stroke...slowly, very, very slowly.
So, like I said, this went on for a few weeks until the week before last when one of the women swam beside me and said...I've been watching you and you are definitely getting quicker, well done. keep going!!! And there it was TADARRRR...ACCEPTANCE.. into the disabled swim!!
This week we were greeted with Hello's and smiles. I was allowed to swim in David's lane with out any comment, and when my mate saw him arriving, we simply moved over and the life guard popped a lane in.
I haven't really spoken to this blind man named David swimming in the lane beside me, we've exchanged pleasantries and introduced ourselves but not really chatted. So, at the end of our respectable thirty lengths, I thought I would have a chat. Well, bugger me if this bloke is not only amazing but he certainly does not need clucking or protecting from anyone. It was lovely to talk to someone who truly understands what I mean. He is clearly a very clever man and does lots of work in art galleries and museums. He was also very genuinely interested in what I had to say, my poor friend was standing in the shallow end of the pool with us as David and I chatted 'blind talk' and I think she felt a bit like the third wheel as we talked about things which she as a sighted person perhaps doesn't always notice or understand. I could feel my passion and need for clarification and acknowledgement of all the seemingly little things that I struggle with everyday rising to the surface, it also has made me aware of the importance of talking to people with similar conditions, and it has made me realise just how lonely this whole sight impairment world can be, and how easy it is to stop talking about it and just try to fit into the sighted world because its easier just to keep quiet and get on with it, but that's not real and that is no longer how my life rolls so why am I trying to make out I am coping and that I can do things that I cant? Maybe for the fear of feeling weak or insignificant I don't know, what I do know is I am looking forward to next weeks swim.
Speak soon xx
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