Borne back ceaselessly

When I think about the Great Gatsby, two things come to mind: mint juleps and the last line of the book. I don't have much to say about mint juleps, but I have something to say about, "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." It's a good image, no? And full of significance, yes? But really, it just makes me think of sculling.

I want to learn to row so badly. It's this hazy, beautiful dream that's been forming in my mind for the last five or six years. Kind of like my dream of going to Alaska. What if I went sculling in Kotzebue? I feel tingly just thinking about it.

A few years ago I hunted through Google for rowing opportunities in Utah. I found this dilapidated website: http://www.gslr.org
Tonight I looked at the website again and I don't think it's changed at all. Living where I am, being part of a rowing club is pretty impossible. According to this map, it would take me well over an hour just to get to where I would need to go. I tell myself that it could still work: what if I went Saturdays? What if I coerced someone into going with me and we could carpool and laugh merrily as we cruised along, flexing our muscles and drinking hot chocolate? My friend, Kate, and I used to talk about doing this. But we had too little money and time, and way too much school. And now she lives in Oregon where the water is so much closer. I hope that someday soon I live close to water. And rowing clubs with less dilapidated websites.

Doesn't rowing sound lovely? Skimming the water, pulling myself along the surface. Everything wet and deep and cold beneath me and the sky blue (or grey) and wide overhead. Sculling quietly, the sound of my own breath and the burn in my arms and heart.

YES!

(I guess maybe my view is a little romanticized.)

**In other news: I've eaten some really succulent nectarines lately. Yep. Succulent. I love summer fruits.