You notice various things when taking a shower. There is an entire zoo of (male) human animals, often even totally in the nude. Some of them look a little like the animals we like to eat so much (and who, genetically spoken, are not all that far removed from us).
Some athletes are overflowing with muscles and some are extremely slim or skeletal. When looking at those, I get ever so envious, wishing I could hide behind the water pouring over me.
Many of the early-morning swimming companions look familiar to me by now, because I see them regularly. In some cases, we meet even more often, because our user profiles are similar. One of them, roughly my own age (?) is particularly outstanding. He seems to be absolutely fit and is truly good-looking. He looks something between an Ancient Roman and a British Gentleman. He also swims about twice as fast as I.
One morning, I am standing in the queue behind him. My secretly admired shower partner buys a ticket “sports swimming” (120 minutes) and pays € 2.75. I pay 4 € for 1.5 hours “early bird” (minus the discount I get thanks to my golden card with a value of 500 €).
I am surprised. So I study the prices on the board. Here is the solution of the riddle – he has a severely handicapped pass. I am glad not to have this kind of pass, although I do not really know if I am totally healthy. But I think most people owning a severely handicapped pass have had to endure grave misery at some time or other.
A few days later, after my swim, I ride my bike and overtake the same gentleman as he is stepping into a rather new, expensive Daimler. I do not begrudge him it.
Yet, I am not sure that I find the financial preference fair. I think: if you have enough money and want to go for a swim, you should pay the full price. And if you do not have enough money, you should have to pay less. And if you are very poor and have no money at all, you should be able to go swimming without having to pay at all.
One of my reasons is that I am pretty sure the “privatized” public swimming pool will send an invoice to the community for these kinds of discounts at the end of each month.
I get equally annoyed when seeing what pains many people – both employees and public servants (not just teachers) – of my age group take and what an enormous degree of imagination and endurance they invest in order to get “early retirement”.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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