This is a story about an eleven-year-old swimmer at a swim meet, written by his dad - as he recounted the story to the swimmer’s grandparents. It touched my heart as I re-read this many years later.
Merry Christmas to all.
This is a little story about Thal at a swim meet. It
provides no grist for any family letter, and there are no first-places, no
four-ohs, no awards, nothing. As a matter of fact, I saw the whole thing and
didn’t even recognize that I’d seen anything special. The starter, Dan M., a
man whom I respect a great deal, had to point out what I’d seen, and he did so
much later. I’ll tell you what happened first, and then I’ll tell you what Dan
told me later. Dan, as starter, is more focused on the lanes and the meet than
I am.
Thal is eleven, and this was a small meet so there was only
one heat for the eleven/twelve-year-old-boys’ breaststroke and freestyle. In
both events, Paul swam next to Thal.
Paul is severely autistic. Paul can swim, but he really
seems to have no idea what is going on; his breaststroke and freestyle are
pretty much the same. When Paul swims, his older sister jumps in and screams
encouragement to him for the entire fifty yards. “Come on Paulie, come on,
touch the wall Paulie.” You can hear Sara shouting for the entire race, and
because Paul is laughing, clowning, and just having a good time, Paul’s “time”
is usually 4 to 5 times as long as that of kids that Thal.
Thal did a simple thing. When a kid finishes a race, he is
supposed to exit the pool immediately. Thal hung around, not saying a thing,
until Paul finished, and then shook Paul’s hand. This is a custom that is quite
common among the more competitive swimmers. Thal quietly extended his hand,
Paul took it, still clowning around, and then Thal exited the pool.
That’s all that happened. I watched it unfold and yet
thought nothing of it. It was over. The eleven/twelve-year-old girls were
lining up, and the meet was going on.
But later that day, Dan pointed out to me that Thal showed
maturity and understanding of a situation that was far beyond what most adults
are up to. And he knew what to do. I sincerely thanked Dan and walked away.
Then I started thinking about Thal, and suddenly I found
myself incredibly proud of this little kid. He has such a grasp of what is
truly important – people, their dignity, and their respect.
Perhaps I make too much of this, but it struck me that I’m
afraid that I would have simply exited the pool and chatted with my friends. I
really don’t know how many people noticed Thal’s gesture. I didn’t, but I’m
glad Dan did. Later that day, Thal talked about the race and gushed that he’d
dropped some time in both freestyle and breaststroke. I told him that that was
great, but as I looked at this brown-eyed kid with a killer smile, I thought to
myself, “You have no idea how much prouder I am of you for you simply being
you.”
