THE SIMPLE THINGS: Cold swims, birding and what if ...

Swimming in cold water

I like swimming in cold water. 

Not Lynn Cox cold water — the Lynn Cox who is an endurance swimmer and twice held the record for the fastest swims of the English Channel, who was the first person to swim two hours and six minutes across the Bering Strait, from Alaska to Russia, in 44-degree water, and who wrote a book entitled "Swimming to Antarctica," about her successful quest to jump into the icy Antarctic Ocean, and swim one mile to glaciated Antarctica — without a wetsuit. 

So, my cold-water tolerance is down to 58 degrees, without a wetsuit, far from Lynn Cox. 

But I’ve learned this. It’s an intellectual challenge. After hundreds of swims in cold water, I know: 1) It will be uncomfortable when I dip in; 2) After swimming for five minutes I’ll feel better, almost good; and 3) When I finish, 100% of the time I will feel invigorated, happy that I swam, and a gallon of Howard’s hot water poured over my head, and a cup of coffee on the beach, with friends, will make it a great choice. 

So, as I dip in the cold Lake Coeur d’Alene in October, I will think about the invigoration that has just begun and the joy that lies ahead.

What if ...

Scott Reed and Art Manley hadn’t saved Tubbs Hill from development?

Wally Pfeiffer hadn't been an assistant superintendent of schools in Coeur d’Alene in the 1980s when he introduced the district to Madeline Hunter's educational philosophy and inspired the district’s skilled teachers to take instruction to an even higher level?

Sue and Pat Flammia, Donna and Roger Young, Mary Lou and Scott Reed, Liz and Jack Steve, Opal Brooten, and other lovers of the arts hadn't started Art on the Green 58 years ago?

Duane Hagadone hadn’t envisioned The Coeur d'Alene Resort?

Wanda Quinn hadn’t created the EXCEL Foundation in 1986, a source of $3.2 million in grants over the last 30 years, for innovative teaching ideas within the Coeur d’Alene School District?

Steve Gibbs hadn’t opened The Art Spirit Gallery in 1997 and dedicated significant efforts to growing Coeur d’Alene as an arts community?

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations had not formed to counter Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations white supremacist group, which maintained a 20-acre compound in Hayden Lake from the 1970s to 2000?

Ironman never sponsored a race in Coeur d’Alene?

Joe Morris hadn’t been the visionary, fiscally responsible CEO of Kootenai Medical Center (formerly Kootenai Memorial Hospital) from 1981 to 2011?

The community hadn’t passed the $3 million bond to kick off fundraising for the new Coeur d’Alene Public Library, designed by Architects West and shaped through the design process by Bette Ammon, the library's first director, which opened on Sept. 10, 2007?

Sue Thilo and the compassionate committee members couldn't secure the grant to build The Kroc Center?

Interstate 90 still went east along Lake Coeur d’Alene, past Tony’s Restaurant, and John Mueller and Doug Eastwood never got to act on their dream of The Centennial Trail?

NIC president Nick Swayne quit fighting when the mysteriously hostile NIC board was trying to destroy North Idaho College?

Moon Time didn’t serve corn pasta?

Scary thoughts. 

"Birding to Change the World" by Trish O’Kane

Before my recent trip to visit family in Wisconsin, my sister recommended Trish O’Kane’s book, which she and her husband had just read. A significant chunk of this uplifting memoir takes place in Madison’s Warner Park, where my other sister and her husband were married in 2000. 

So we visited the park and saw it differently than at the wedding, moved by Trish O’Kane’s and dozens of others' efforts to have the park developers consider the birds and other animals for whom this is home. 

Trish O’Kane never expected to be a birder. A lone red cardinal and a cast of house sparrows changed everything for her after Hurricane Katrina shattered her life in New Orleans. Watching birds thrive throughout the devastated city became her salvation and set her on a new path. Soon, O’Kane found herself pursuing an environmental science PhD in Wisconsin, where she became a full-on bird obsessive — logging hours and hours in a stunningly diverse urban park, filling field notebooks with observations of bird doings and dramas, and volunteering in a wildlife rehabilitation center bird nursery.

But it wasn’t until that park, her bird-watching haven across the street from her home, was threatened with development that O’Kane became an environmental activist. Taking her cues from the birds, she rallied a mighty flock of fellow human park lovers to raise their voices and save it.

Each chapter in "Birding to Change the World" features at least one bird species that has taught O'Kane a life lesson. She recounts the astonishing science of bird life, including migration and survival strategies, along with moving, compelling stories about birds and the humans who love them. Trish O’Kane shows what birds can teach us — and how that education can transform social change.

I loved this book and the perspectives it opened my eyes to.

One amazing thing about our world

Phoebe Snetsinger, whose life story Olivia Gentile tells in "Life List: A Woman’s Quest for the Most Amazing Birds," became the world birding champion in 1995 when she became the first person to see 8,000 species!

Quote about life

“We create wonderful places by giving them our attention.” — David George Haskell

• • •

David Groth retired in 2016 after 37 years in elementary education. His last 17 years, the favorite part of his career, were spent teaching fifth grade and juggling at Sorensen Magnet School of the Arts and Humanities. He has lived in Coeur d’Alene since 1982 and has always appreciated the people, the geography, the climate, the rivers and lakes, and the simple things that make days special.