I grew up in the South; was born there. One summer when I was 13, a friend and I taught ourselves to swim. He was 17 and lived down the street from me. It was a crummy neighborhood in a crummy town but there was one redeeming feature. The lake was about three miles away. We'd walk or ride bikes out to the lake and have a good time.
One day we got a little cocky and decided to swim across this cove where we'd been swimming. Half-way across I got very winded and tired. I panicked and was in the process of drowning. My friend had the presence of mind to realize that the water was only about ten feet deep. He went down and stood on the bottom and held his breath so he could hold me above the water for a minute until I got myself together. He saved my life that day.
Years later, I was married with two small children of my own. We went swimming with another couple and their kids at a small river in south Georgia. The water was only about knee-deep on a man, but was very refreshing since it was an extremely hot day.
This couple had one child who was just a toddler. He was wearing a diaper and could barely walk. My wife and I were downstream of the others and off to ourselves just a bit. My wife felt something bump her leg. We looked down and saw this toddler floating by on the current. He was face up. His eyes were already set in his head and his face was blue. I'll never forget that he had this puzzled expression on his face as though he didn't understand what had happened.
I snatched the little dude out of the water. I lay him lengthwise, up and down my left arm, on his belly, and smacked him hard between the shoulder blades with my right hand. He ejected a bunch of water from his lungs and started crying. I handed him to his Mom. It was all over in less than ten seconds so I didn't have time to think about it and get scared or screw it up.
I rarely think about either of these events but recently I was wondering if there was some sort of weird Karma linking the two happenings. Like the movie with Kevin Spacey, Pay It Forward, you know?
CE Wills
One day we got a little cocky and decided to swim across this cove where we'd been swimming. Half-way across I got very winded and tired. I panicked and was in the process of drowning. My friend had the presence of mind to realize that the water was only about ten feet deep. He went down and stood on the bottom and held his breath so he could hold me above the water for a minute until I got myself together. He saved my life that day.
Years later, I was married with two small children of my own. We went swimming with another couple and their kids at a small river in south Georgia. The water was only about knee-deep on a man, but was very refreshing since it was an extremely hot day.
This couple had one child who was just a toddler. He was wearing a diaper and could barely walk. My wife and I were downstream of the others and off to ourselves just a bit. My wife felt something bump her leg. We looked down and saw this toddler floating by on the current. He was face up. His eyes were already set in his head and his face was blue. I'll never forget that he had this puzzled expression on his face as though he didn't understand what had happened.
I snatched the little dude out of the water. I lay him lengthwise, up and down my left arm, on his belly, and smacked him hard between the shoulder blades with my right hand. He ejected a bunch of water from his lungs and started crying. I handed him to his Mom. It was all over in less than ten seconds so I didn't have time to think about it and get scared or screw it up.
I rarely think about either of these events but recently I was wondering if there was some sort of weird Karma linking the two happenings. Like the movie with Kevin Spacey, Pay It Forward, you know?
CE Wills
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