Jump in! : St. Edwards Park, Austin, TX

St. Ed's. Ed, the common man's saint. The common man's park. The suburban stream. And I arrive blasted with preconceived word tumblings all forgotten in the face of the flowing frankness of the common man's saint. So many times the water sits still and stagnant and there is nothing but disappointment, but the rains came and this is the most pleasant day a common man could ask for. The stream slips green and glassy. Sunlight shines sheens reflected off ripples. I sit in the roots of the waterside trees, uncomfortable only in theory. The rope swing hangs still over the slippery green pools fed by gentle rushes from the rapids. A dislocation of the shallow shelf of rock, stretching back around the bend in the trees beyond, and we get to listen to the calming sound of incessant streaming gurgling bubbles, rounding rocks and pebbles, whirling pools and swirls of churned aerated water. And to think, you can get all of this in the comfort of your home or office if you just go to the Sharper Image, or leaf through an airplane shopper's catalog.


Post Script - What was there to do but to strip down to brass boxers and jump fresh into jittering cold water? What was there to do but to rise back through the broken surface whooping high pitched from the jittering cold water? What was left but to take the still rope swing by its end and swim back struggling out on the roots of the waterside trees just to swing in again? And after that? What was there left to do but re-robe and leave?