Wild swimming is a splashy term for what humans have always done, but the custom was given full shape and expression with the publication of one seminal book. Perhaps wild swimming-the practice of swimming in rivers, ponds, and lakes, which I had caught this young man engaging in-could be a new opportunity to pay more attention to the waterways close to home. Many of us have spent the past year getting to know our block, our park, researching our neighborhood’s histories and monuments, its flora and fauna. One unforeseen boon of the pandemic has been a newfound attunement to the local, as restricted travel has forced us to tap into our immediate surroundings. I might have once filed away swimming in the Mill River under classic case of adolescent insanity, but a year of quarantining has revealed that all kinds of previously unthinkable hobbies are viable, even welcome, forms of leisure. Could I imagine myself going for a swim in this spot? After he left, I put my hand in the water and considered the river anew. I wanted to ask him whether he was worried about getting a rash, or cholera, but didn’t. “This was here, and I felt like swimming,” he said dreamily. But his response was remarkably unneurotic. Given that a year ago, a sewage spill had dumped more than 2 million tons of waste into the river and the Long Island Sound, and signs had been posted telling people not to get close, I imagined he would address my surprise head-on. I asked him why he had decided to swim there. This particular stretch at the base of East Rock Park looked idyllic enough, with willows and elms growing along its banks, but around the bend, the water passed through an industrial area with rotting factories and massive dunes of road salt. The sight was shocking the river had barely thawed, and I’d always thought the unspoken rule about urban rivers was that you didn’t get into them (especially not half naked). He appeared to have gone for a swim wearing nothing more than boxer briefs. Some months ago, as the weather was first turning warm, I was out walking along the Mill River in New Haven when I saw a young man emerge from the water.
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