Why We Swim (2021)
Bonnie Tsui
rating fantastic
type nonfiction/autobiography audiobook
concepts psychology/relatable
2021/01/11 What draws us to water, despite its dangers?
- The paradox of water as a source of life and death
- Diving for abalone! Dangerous, but draws many people.
- Cave paintings of people underwater found in the Sahara, fossils of marine life → once was the Green Sahara
- “Paleolake” maintained by a fault for thousands of years, until last Ice Age
- Humans (and other great apes) one of few mammals without innate ability to swim— must be taught
- What makes humans unique? Ability for large-scale, cumulative, cultural learning
- Cultural evolution that affects genetic evolution
- Culture of swimming 🏊♀️ is part of this
- Bajau people in Indonesia → larger spleens as a result of natural selection
- Mammalian dive reflex → spleen contracts and releases oxygenated RBCs; larger → can dive deeper → survive better (seals have v disproportionately large spleens!)
- Other groups in Myanmar, Thaliand → acquired abilities to see clearly underwater (contract pupils somehow)
- We must learn to live with water— and then it opens us up to possibility.
- We are captivated by survival stories bc we hope they will reveal something about human nature in extremes...
- Long history of water as a treatment for all ailments, promoting wellness (the water cure)
- Sea water (the English sea resort), hydropathy, ancients bathing in essential oils & water...
- Swimming for health to mitigate some effects of aging → reduce BP, arterial stiffness (water shifting to extremities while swimming “conditions” CV system), arthritis (boosting circulation & oxygenation)
- The Ama (sp?) people of Japan → cold water diving lifestyle, also show adaptations similar to diving mammals (lower HR, etc.)
- Other studies showing benefits of regular submersion in cold and warm waters
- Response of fat to cold and exercise = browning— conversion of white fat to brown fat, which has more mitochondria, ramps up metabolism
- Cold → stress response, most efficient way to increase energy expenditure (even more than exercise) BUT bad for CV system bc vasoconstriction, incr BP
- Experience of awe → more likely to help people around you, heightens focus on present
- Beautiful quote by Rachel Carson from essay "Undersea," on how the ocean shows us the interconnectedness of life (carson-undersea)
- Swimming → connectedness
- Swimmer Kim → swims for human rights: across the Dead Sea to recognise Israeli and Jordanian efforts to combat climate change, swimming 6 miles along US-Mexico border from San Diego to Tijuana; to show how connected we are, not just a political point
- Baghdad swim team— people from around the world learning to swim
- Explorers (Pew?) → swim across, ex. North Pole to draw attention to the fact that you shouldn’t be able to swim there... climate crisis
- Katie Ledecky: she’s not afraid of failure, but failure is not an option.
- Japan → tradition of swimming practices, swimming martial arts— nihon eiho
- Not just speed, but treading completely still, a much wider variety of movements in water
- Can learn to swim with hands and feet bound together
- Flow state (mental experience) vs “in the zone” (physical experience)— in the former, time seems to pass faster; in the latter, it passes slower (form richer memories, so in retrospect, time dilates)
- Water → allows your brain to daydream by dulling sensory input → activates default mode network → have ideas!