Swing Boats, Secure & Free

This morning I was speaking via telephone with my 92-year-old mother in the UK. She loved gymnastics when she was a girl, and I remember that when she was well over 50 she would occasionally stand on her head in the living room!

Today she was telling me about "swing boats," which was something she and other girls did during gym class at the Girls Grammar School. It's done on the climbing ropes. (In fact I remember doing it too when I was in school). You grasp two adjoining ropes simultaneously, turn yourself upside down, and "hook" your feet, one around each rope. Then you swing yourself back and forth, still upside down, but holding tightly with those feet and with your arms.   

I asked her whether one reason she liked it was because she felt both secure and free as she did it. She said "Yes!" She said how great it felt to be swinging through space, and meanwhile her feet and to some extent her arms, were holding on firmly.