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SNORKELLING



We’ve maybe only put our head down a few inches into the warm clear sea, our backs are still up there in the sunshine, but we’ve entered another world; strands of seaweed billow elegantly in the light currents; a crab goes by on the sandy bottom; there’s a bright small clownfish darting about. We float and observe; we’re not really participants - there’s nothing we’re supposed to do. The rest of life above, suddenly, feels slightly unreal and irrelevant, relativised by this vast new world that is so rarely spoken of. We’re in an alien element that would drown us - were it not for a short section of tube, which assures us total safety. It takes only a simple, ingenious device to massively extend the range of our experience. All society’s excitement seems directed towards discovering new planets. And yet we need only slip on a mask - and can discover galaxies.

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