( NOT IN 3RD PERSON) SHALLOW THOUGHTS FROM THE DEEP END WITH MISS JULIE’S POOL BOY: Yesterday it began, the 100 days ‘til Labor Day & Miss Julie & the Pool Boy exchanged their traditional farewell. It’s not emotional like Rick & Ilsa on a Casablancan runway or romantic like William & Anna on a Notting Hill park bench but more akin to Johnny Utah & Bodie on Point Break’s stormy Aussie surf. The farewell of over 30 times? “See ya’ Labor Day.” Over the next, now 99 days, maybe MJPB will brush up on his new job requirements, hopefully lose more dad bod, or possibly pen the next great American short story. What is definite in the next 14 weeks, those black & white pics of Miss Julie will repeat. They’re MJPB’s favorites & happen every year whether the swimmer is competitive or struggling to float. They are where we all exist. We all need a miracle from time to time & we all can benefit with a little bread from Heaven’s sky but the truth is we all live in the charged atmosphere between the miraculous & the manna, in the Venn diagram where thriving & a warm body not offering a clue of being alive intersect. We all reside in the pictures. In one, there’s no indication of win or loss, no idea of a DQ or PR. Just two people that in that moment, can look at their Maker & say they used their day as best they could, the bucket’s empty. The other, a hopeful kid with a smile of a carefree days. The same smile the two that presently make up our 3rd generation had yesterday as they baptized themselves in those frigid, healing waters. In 99 days, Miss Julie will chain the gates & turn the lock on summer, the paycheck once again not reflecting the invested time or effort, there’ll be a miracle of a PR or someone learning to swim, there’ll be manna in a last place finish because the swimmer finished or another student graduated Miss Julie’s swim lessons & learned the meaning of “I can” & the buckets of Miss Julie & others will be empty & that is something the Pool Boy thought you should know …