G. Calvert

 


Swimming

Immersion is for me the cleansing escape and as a Jewish woman it has significance. For years, trying to swim in spaces that are just out of reach has featured in my dreams. Swimming in the Lido has saved me from domestic outrage and soothed my frustrations in the fight between making art, work, and other duties or compulsions. The particular sensitivity of the Lido appealed when I swam early every morning after visiting my mother, unconcious in Royal Free Intensive Care. Then again, when bought to my knees from the stress of combining art, youthwork and tragedy at the direction of a priest in Kings Cross, in late October, pouring with rain, the project finally over I realised the Lido was open. As I get older, seas / rivers / ponds all pose problems but the Lido remains supreme. My last swim was on March 12 – my brother already had Covid, and I was anxious.