Hello There, Sissies, Do You Have A Dream?
Diana Nyad's Inspirational Talk at the Last Gasp Retirement Village
Photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ., United States.
Hello there, sissies, do you have a dream?
Of course, you do, although those of you from the Memory Care unit may have trouble remembering it.
Maybe it’s finishing that memoir your grandchildren have been clamoring for. Maybe it’s becoming the Last Gasp pickleball champ. Maybe it’s winning the Last Gasp Golf Cart Race without driving into the pool. My dream was to swim 110 miles from Cuba to Key West, get bitten by box jellyfish, go into cardiac arrest, and puke. I did it, as the Netflix movie “Nyad” so magnificently relates, when I was 64. We’re never too old to chase our dreams.
Of course, it helps if you have someone who will be there when your determination flags, like my lifelong friend and coach, Bonnie Stoll who you may have noticed kneeling here at my feet. Bonnie has been my pal for over forty years. Yes, to anticipate your question, we did Le Grand Boom Boom for a while, but friendship was more our thing. It is for that reason, I always carry packets of Kit Kat bars.
Here Bonnie, catch!
Wasn’t that great, the way Bonnie caught the Kit Kat bar with her mouth, so her hands would be free to massage my quads! And this is a woman whose doctors told her she needed knee replacements. The hell with those quacks, I said. What you need is to be next to me in the chase boat, cheering me on. Those waves slamming against the bottom of the boat in the storm everyone warned me could kill the crew – that’s the best therapy those knees could have:
CRACK! WHAM! BANG!
Two escorts in kayaks almost drowned in that attempt, but when following a dream – mine especially – sacrifices must be made.