Force of Nature

August 29 2015

You could hear them coming

down the length of the lake.

A couple, late middle-aged

and she, singing all the way

as if serenading nature.

Her voice was big

and sweet

and full of joy.

She was paddling in back, in control

which is usually the man's prerogative.

It must not have mattered

that she wasn't any good,

changing sides randomly

zig-zagging erratically,

accompanied by the dull clang

of wood against aluminum

like some kind of avant-garde jazz.

While he spoke softly

and dutifully paddled along,

pleasantly content

to follow.

They were not the outdoorsy type,

white-haired, and on the lumpy side,

in floppy sun hats

over-sized life jackets.

And the canoe was a clunker, as well,

too fat to be fast

and the battered aluminum

made it slower still.

And unfashionably flat-sterned

where a small motor clamps on.

Except they propelled themselves.

And she, a force of nature, needed no help,

singing lustily

and unselfconsciously,

waving a grand hello

as they paddled past.

They stuck close to shore,

pointing out the sights

as delighted as children

for the first time,

husband and wife

in their own private playground.

Show-tunes, lullabies, rock 'n roll.

This is how to grow old, I thought;

as if you were still in the summer of life

and school was out for good.

In no particular rush,

belting out your song

with the one you love,

as if this was all there was

that mattered.

True story.

Surprisingly quiet on the lake, for one of the last nice weekends of the summer. But this couple were having none of it: they weren't going to waste the last of the good weather!

I admire, and perhaps kind of envy, her utter unselfconsciousness. (Not to mention her ability to carry a tune!) They set a good example. That is, be yourself, even if it's a little eccentric. Apparently, eccentrics are healthier than the rest of us. So it must do some good to ignore the crowd, to stubbornly refuse to conform. (And I have no idea why I just wrote than the rest of us, since if anyone is a bona fide eccentric, I am! ...Maybe it's because to be a gloriously true eccentric, one must lack a certain self-awareness.)

I assumed, quite naturally, that they were husband and wife. But why not illicit lovers? Just goes to show how ageist even I can be!