"Swim"

SWIM

One of my favorite scenes from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” is the jump. Outlaws on the run are driven to where the sidewalk ends, and the flowing river bends a death’s drop below. On the rock’s edge, they are forced to decide to reveal or hide what makes them different from the other. A bright “We’ll jump” is met with an outlandish “I wanna fight ‘em.” Wedged between a posse and a death wish, one ignores the other until the truth wins. “I can’t swim!” Silence, then a nod. Laughter rips at the oddness of it all. Then adrenaline sends the two over the bluff to a river they hope is deep enough to carry them anywhere but here.

Friendships are inevitably held up in a place where circumstances will expose the face you’ve worked so hard to cover. And at that point, what will you do? Fight ‘em or say what you can’t? “Would you make a jump like that you didn’t have to?” Let silence echo between and laughter be the means of jumping into waters deep enough to carry you through.