Take Me On Back to the Sea

Step nine- Immerse in the mikvah everyday. I continue my downward slide. We live about 240 miles from the nearest uncontested kosher mikvah, a fact that Mrs. Jude brings to my attention every month. A person could immerse in the ocean, except on rare occasions, I am not that person.
As I explain to the Little Rebbetzin, “The Atlantic Ocean where daddy grew up is the nice ocean, remember when we went swimming in Florida when we went to visit Aunt Faye? The beach here is the bad ocean, you can’t go in the water, its dangerous.”
Don’t let images of Southern California's palm tree lined beaches fool you, the water here comes straight down from Alaska and never gets above fifty degrees even in the middle of summer. Average survival time without a dry suit is about 10 minutes. Then there are the waves, big frothy crashing waves with trees rolling around in the surf....trees....rolling. Wind too, thirty, forty miles per hour, all the time, everyday.
Sure, I know this shouldn’t deter me, don’t we read about the tzaddikim who would go down to the river in winter, shovel away the snow, chop a hole in the ice, and immerse. I tell myself: they were stout eastern European peasants; I am just a skinny city boy from New York. Yes, when I come out of the surf pummeled but intact I am very invigorated, shivering uncontrollably, but feeling very alive, but that doesn’t mean I want to risk my life doing this everyday, especially first thing in the morning.