Anmaßende Jugend

mardi, août 25, 2009

BELLS FROM THE DEEP

We drove to a dam that had been built in the seventies. The whole valley had been flooded including five villages by the huge lake next to it. From the surface, the only sign of those villages was the bell tower of a church that rose above the water in the middle of the lake. The road leading to the lake had been closed, and to get to the lakeshore we had to walk on some dead trees lying over some brambles.

Naturally, the idea of swimming to the bell tower sounded pretty exciting from the dry and muddy bank we were standing on, so we started swimming to the rising belfry that was about 1 km from the shore.

We were slowly crawling through the deep blue void of the water, hearing nothing but the lapping of our strokes, but that actual silence and the dark blue of the lake started to make me very anxious as we continued to drift away from the shore. I suddenly realize that the blue void was nothing but a village underneath the water, and the thing we were heading for was a church. Having a panic attack in the middle of a lake was not the best idea.
I tried chasing these thoughts from my mind :

- "Why is there nobody but us here ?"
- "Is it a blasphemy to go to that church ?"
- "What if Nessie lives in that lake ?"
-"Is the memory of a feeling a feeling ?"
-"Does my car know me ?"

I tried to replace all those disturbing queries with a single question (as I often do during panic attacks) :

- "How does a fish feel entering a church ?"

Focusing on that last enigma allowed me to swim to the bell tower serenly, take a few pictures and come back to the shore ignoring a big fish who jumped next to me, Nessie, and all the submerged citizens that could have grabbed my legs from below.