Wet your Feet

Once I knew a man who wanted to learn swimming. So he went and bought several instructional books on swimming. He read all of them cover to cover and became a theoretical swimmer. He knew all the techniques of swimming, different styles, ways to breathe, how to speed up, etc. Thereafter he watched hundreds of online videos on swimming. Thus he became a visual swimmer. Now he knew how to put his theoretical knowledge visually. He could visualize himself swimming through the oceans and lakes. Being a thorough person next he interviewed some of the finest swimmers in his country. He quizzed them about the finer points the points that a book cannot bring out. And he learnt the secrets of swimming well. He became so knowledgeable that he started writing blogs and online articles about swimming. Being systematic and thorough his articles were amazing and soon he was asked to coach the regional swimming team. And he coached them well, putting all his knowledge through his students and the team excelled, winning gold after gold. The man went on to become a national level coach and people swore by him. He wrote books, consulted with foreign teams, gave lectures in corporate. He had an amazing life. People wrote about him, media loved him. Movies were essayed on his life.

 When he grew old he stopped coaching. And one day his grandson insisted that he should take him to a swimming pool. So he took his ten year old grandkid to the neighboring swimming pool that was named after him. Everyone revered him and the manager was delighted to see the grand old man of swimming visiting along with his grandson. The grandson jumped into the pool and started splashing water. He was having fun and then he insisted that his grandfather should join him. The old man, without a second thought, decided to indulge the boy. He stepped inside the pool, slipped and drowned. They tried their best to resuscitate him but he didn’t recover.

 And the final words he uttered before he breathed his last: I wish I had stepped into the pool before. I had all the knowledge about swimming yet I had never wet my feet.