Every once in a while, I just don't feel like packing-up my gear and heading out the door. Especially on a Sunday morning. Early. When it's really cold outside. And I'm off to take pictures of people on a windy beach willingly plunge into water that, if it were 10 degrees colder, they could skate on.
But it was the "CT Brain Freeze" to raise money for and awareness about Brain Tumors, and right off the bat I could come-up with one very good reason why I should go, and why I should be downright pleased about doing so.
I wasn't one of the people who pledged to do it.
So I get there and find a positive energy love-fest. Everyone's happy. Everyone's enthusiastic. Lots of people are dressed ridiculously. Grown men in orange tutus. Vikings. Bikinis for cryin' out loud. And into the icy waters of the Long Island Sound they go, bringing with them their memories of a friend or loved-one lost to this particular disease.
They shriek, they laugh, they splash, and they come out shivering, wrapping themselves in blankets and hugging each other. I guess when you've been through what many of these people have been through, your concept of what's hard-to-do changes.
While I don't envy what they've been through, I kind of envy who they are now. Because it seems that despite what they've lost, they're joyous, and unafraid, and willing to rush forward exuberantly in an orange tutu no matter what lay ahead.
What I would have missed had I stayed in bed this Sunday morning.