Five Stick Friday

So, I’ve decided to change my approach to social media use in 2024, and better employ this blog I launched last year to journal thoughts rather than the day to day banter on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

And with that, while battling insomnia last night, I cued up the movie “NYAD” last night with zero knowledge of the subject matter. If you’ve not seen and plan to, file this entry away for future reading as it’s next to impossible to discuss the impact of the movie without spoilers.

So… wow. What an implausible , inspiring, almost infuriating, and yet uplifting story! A marathon swimmer wakes up on her 60th birthday with a resolve to make right the biggest “failure” of her life… an attempted 103-mile swim from Cuba to Key West.

Let’s start with implausible. The movie’s main character, Diana Nyad, has not even been in a swimming pool for 30 years when she makes the decision she’s going to do this. And as portrayed, this is an emotional decision in response to turning 60 and not just wanting to “fade away”. We’ve all made emotionally driven declarations that our reality simply can’t support. This felt like one…Add in the logic that weather, current, jellyfish, shark, and other hazards have to be managed and the whole thing seems impossible.

Moving to inspiring. Diana starts “small”. Laps in a pool. When she successfully logs several hours of continuous swimming in a pool, she and her coach head to Mexico to her first open water swim in 30 years. Her initial goal was a 6 hour open swim. She falls far short. So she’s done, right? Wrong. She convinces her friend/coach to go “one more time” and swims over 8 hours continuously. Now she’s on a mission.

Now for infuriation. And major spoiler. Diana makes not one, not two, not three… but FOUR unsuccessful attempts to make the Cuba to Key West swim. All ending semi-disastrously with navigation, poisonous jellyfish, horrendous weather, etc. And while I guess it’s admirable that she just wouldn’t give up, the mission has now stretched into 4+ years, she’s nearly died at sea twice, and a “never give up attitude” is now seeming semi-psychotic. But the most infuriating? She seemingly has no regard for her best friend and coach, navigator, boat captain, medical team, and in-water safety team. As portrayed, these people bought into the mission at great personal expense, time away from family, and sacrifice of employment. And yet to Diana, it’s all about her.

I won’t put out the final spoiler. I’m sure it’s obvious. But in the end, I came away thinking … do you ever really coach someone you love to “never EVER give up?”