Without hindsight…

… I wouldn’t have no sight at all, to paraphrase an old Ray Charles tune.

You see, Sarah and I have had this desire to swim in the local River, the Aare. We have wanted to do this since before we were in Switzerland over a year ago. We watched Rick Steves show us how people just jump right in, float along, and get out somewhere else down the river. To us, this was THE DAY. We were finally going to get our chance.

The Aare is a relatively fast moving, freshwater river that flows from a glacier of the same name in the Bernese Alps. It expands into Lake Brienz, then flows past Interlaken into Lake Thun, and courses north from Thun, past our small village of Münsingen on it’s way through Bern. It eventually meets up with the Rhine river near Koblenz, Switzerland. This makes it the longest river to arise and end in Switzerland. It is some of the bluest, clearest water that I’ve ever seen, and every year, thousands of people swim, paddle, and tube in the Aare. In fact, one could even jump in at Münsingen, and ride it all the way to Bern if they wanted. We did not do this.

We decided to take the kids down to the river, throw on our bathing suits, and each of us (Sarah and I that is) take turns jumping into the river and float for a few moments before coming ashore and rejoining the family. Emily was there ready to cheer me on. James was snapping countless photos on our camera. Sarah had the camcorder in hand and was catching every second. And Henry was busy throwing rocks in the water. It sounded like a great idea, and indeed it was, except for one small problem…

So I admit… I forgot to take my glasses off before jumping in. As I hit the ice cold water, I thought to myself, “did I take my glasses off?” I reached immediately to my face as I went underwater and felt a moment’s relief when there were no glasses on my face, “aahhh, I DID take my glasses off.” This feeling was immediately replaced with one of dread: “No you didn’t, you moron, you could see fine before you jumped in.”

In fact, you can see the complete stupidity for yourself in the video below, intended to capture a moment of extreme pleasure while communing with nature. It really just shows an idiot, jumping into a fast moving freshwater river, with his glasses on. So while hindsight is usually 20/20, it is rarely, if at all, comforting.