Swimmer in an Empty Pool
"I've seen the needle and the damage done, a little part of it in everyone." - Neil Young
So let's say that your life is a mountain. As you grow, life gets harder and the slope of the mountain increases. Life is an uphill struggle. Climbing can get boring and it makes you so tired, so for some fun you slide back down a little. The older you get and the further up the mountain you are, the further back down you slide, and the harder it becomes to climb back up. So then, at some point in your travels, you come across this pool of water, or drugs. Boy this sure looks like some fun and a few of your friends are already swimming. Maybe some are taking the plunge for the first time with you. So you dip in your toe to test the waters. It sure feels great, and at first it is great. You come and go as you please, you stop to sip from the spring, you chat with the other swimmers, and on occasion you dive in head first. Before you know it, you're in there all the time. There are things you are neglecting outside of the pool, so you step out, but life isn't the same, not the same as in the pool. You feel like a fish out of water. You start swimming at strange times, you swim by yourself, you stay in way to long and your fingers begin to prune. You try to hide it from others. You tell them that you just take a dip every now and again. You stand there soaking wet, and you claim you're bone dry. But they see it in your fingers, smell it on your clothes, and feel it in your words. They try to towel you off and so you run, you dive into the pool and you hide under the water. Before long you look around and realize you're alone in the pool. Your friends have all gotten out and continued up the mountain in search of new and better adventures. That's fine you say, go ahead! When the rain comes and the ground gets soft, you'll slide right back down to the pool, and I'll be waiting. Perhaps that's why you jumped in, in the first place, the rain can't soak you if you're already wet. Now you've filled that void, the rain has stopped falling and the pool is beginning to dry. You start to sink, and your loved ones reach their arms down, but you bat them away. They throw in life preservers, but you toss them back out. You like it in the pool, they just don't understand that. If you're lucky, one of them will have the good sense to drag you out by your collar. So you sink and sink, as you're loved ones beg you to just reach up and take a hand. Before you know it, they've all gone, and the water has all dried up. The pool is now just an empty hole of what once was your life, and you've hit rock bottom. You now realize that there was never anything down here for you at all. You're alone. You hear your friends and family above you having a good time. You want to join in the fun, but you can't reach the surface alone, and they no longer reach down their hands, for they fear that you'll drag them down along with you. So stay alert now! A hand will appear, perhaps when you'd least expect it, or from whom you'd least expect it. Perhaps it's your own hand. Or maybe someone comes along who's been down in that hole before and knows what it's like. He'll help you out and tell you how lucky you are to have made it out alive. Some people drown in these waters. Maybe you've seen them swimming before, maybe you've swam with them, maybe, you taught them how to swim. Well you're free now, and while it's too late to fix the past, there is new hope for the future. The right thing to do now, now that you've been given a second chance to climb, is to pass on what you've learned to future generations, tell them about the dangers at sea, so they don't wind up caught in the undertow. So if you see someone just cooling their feet in the water, tell them how the water only cools for so long, before it begins to burn you. So now you wonder how I came to know all this. I'm a swimmer in an empty pool. Please find me. Please help me.
"I swim but I wish I'd never learned, the water's too polluted with germs." - Sublime
I'll see you at the summit
