Day at the Beach

To celebrate the 4th of July, we went to the beach today. I was extremely relaxed packing for ONLY two kids, since two have moved out and two are working at Bible camps for the summer. Daughter Jana and husband Aaron, however, found it a little challenging to pack for TWO kids, adjusting to the increased demand on their lives with the recent birth of Brayden. We enjoyed several hours of snacking, resting, swimming, reading, building sand castles, playing football and just enjoying being together as one smaller-than-normal happy family.

I was being the good Mommy and swimming with daughter Rebekah. She had her pink inner tube and I was on a bright green inflatable alligator. Over and over Bekah would "rescue" me and haul me to shore, dragging me in while we fought the wild seaweed that kept wrapping around our legs. Even my alligator would get wrapped up and need to be weeded.

My eye caught a similar scene on a larger inner tube next to us. If I wasn't so stinking mid-westernly polite, I might have stared. Instead, I am blogging. Because we women are so catty and make ourselves feel better about our bodies by comparing ourselves to others, I will be honest. I noticed that she was older than I am. I noticed she was wrinklier than I am. I noticed she was more cottage-cheesy than I am. I noticed she was more over-weight than I am.

But, SHE was in a bikini.

And, she didn't care about all of the above.

I was thinking about the adage, "If you got it flaunt it." I don't agree with it, I am raising my family with modesty as a desirable character quality, but I do understand it. I found it hard to understand someone who obviously didn't have it, still flaunting it. She was bouncing and splashing and enjoying herself so much with two teenage daughters/granddaughters, that I decided if it didn't bother her, I wouldn't let it bother me.

Then, the unthinkable happened. While I was politely not staring while she cavorted on her inner tube, she fell off.


The impact of her body hitting the water jarred her upper body tremendously.



So much, in fact, that she lost her top....








this is where I am glad I had left my camera behind.....









...denture.







Even then, she didn't care. She popped her plate back in, between hysterical giggles, and resumed her water frolic with the two equally hysterical teenagers.

Somehow, the superior disgust I admit to initially feeling turned into admiration.


I want to grow old with that mentality.


Minus the bikini, of course.