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I've actually got a stroke of genius to report. But the problem is its just one of those little strokes of genius that if you don't catch it the second it happens you might very well miss it. Not enough to make an actual diary of but ... you know ...it started with "free tickets."
But in this instance the ticket holders were our grandsons and the "free pass" was for the public (tax payer funded) aquatic center, which is a place we go to pretty often anyway. So sure, when grandma and I were invited to go swimming for free with our grandsons we readily agreed (steam room, sauna, hot tub) and especially since this was one of the rewards they received for graduating their summer swimming classes. A free (one time) family pass.
Ok, now I don't know how it is where you live, but where I live there is no specific definition of "family" and there are no real limits and there wasn't on these tickets either. The only limit was that the ticket holder had to have successfully passed their summer swimming lessons but as far as what constituted "family" it could be anyone up to seven people. And just with my grandsons two tickets that could have been 14 people.
Its a good thing that we just happened to get there very early. Because while there weren't all that many people there at first more and more started showing up soon after and I noticed them because instead of hiding out in the sauna I was holding my breath under water with my snorkeling youngest grandson in the big pool or swimming, floating, relaxing, and conversing with my 12 year old grandson in the deep end.
And it wasn't until I actually did sneak off to the sauna that I happened to look back on that scene from the wading pool, to the "big pool," and the "deep end," and suddenly saw the little stroke of genius that they had unleashed upon us.
The reason myself and so many others were spending all that time out there swimming with the "graduates" of their summer swimming lessons is because they could swim. And even in the case of especially those little toddlers even if they could not actually swim there was just such a world of difference between this time and the last time you saw them in the water it was absolutely remarkable. Stark ... ya know. Improvement by a league if you will. Got no idea what that really is, but its got to be a bunch. And that was the amount of improvement those "graduates" had achieved.
How cynical I thought (if you are in one of the "reddest" places on earth.) Take both your money and your taxes and use it to subsidize socialist programs like swimming lessons for kids. And then, if that is not bad enough, trick you into violating all those alleged anti-government freebie ideals, go to the pool and have the inescapable experience of witnessing first hand just how remarkably well it had worked.
And here's the sad part (you knew there had to be one) and where the actual stroke of genius comes in. See, the sad part is that this is nothing new or even unique. You know no matter how much our public schools and programs are demonized they are actually by absolute majority conducted by human beings that really do want to do the best possible job they can and they do.
Its just this time the people who ran this program managed to trick a whole lot of people into showing up in person and witnessing first hand what a difference they made.
Just a little stroke of genius I hope catches on and nobody shoots them.
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