We walk the shoreline
Between safety and danger
Between a life that is normal
And a life that is anything but normal
Between dry ground
And the seemingly calm water
That conceals an overwhelmingly strong undertow
An undertow that has the power to sweep you,
My bright eyed, my smiling,
Away, into the deep water
Where we and emergency medical personnel must struggle mightily
Just to hold your head above water
To save you.
How easy it is to forget that danger
To become complacent over time
To begin to be distracted--to look away--with increasing frequency
To begin to think that you can safely play on the shore
To begin to forget to be diligent in supervision
To let you wander a little further out than you should
Because the last time you wandered a little further out
Than you should, it was OK.
You were OK.
And therefore
Now, after several times of wandering too far out
In which you were also OK
It's become easy to begin to believe
That life on the shore doesn't necessarily require
Nearly as much diligence as we thought it did
But, when you live in a place where the undertow is
Too often predictably present and always very powerful
That complacency
That relaxing of diligence
Is very dangerous.
Because, sometimes
Just when we least expect it,
The undertow is there. And it's strong,
And really, truly,
It is not OK
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