Diana Nyad will swim from Cuba to Key West

The Times has an article about endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, "Ready to Swim 103 Miles With the Sharks: Swimming From Cuba to Key West, Without Leaving the Water"

We find Diana's ambitious project, her quest, her goal -- inspiring. We like best the end of the article with Nyad's explanation for undertaking this massive challenge after a long hiatus.

But why go through this agony again?

Ms. Nyad pinned the reason on her gallop toward 60; it unsettled her greatly. She needed a fresh, powerful target to stir up her energy and ambition. And although she had given up swimming abruptly in 1979, a casualty of burnout, her mind seized on her unsuccessful swim to Key West.

“This is what I need to remedy my malaise,” Ms. Nyad said. “I need commitment to take over. That level of commitment has such a high. There is no thinking about regrets or what will I do with the rest of my life. I’m immersed in the everyday, full tilt. It’s so energizing.”

Ms. Nyad no longer swims in anger, as she did in her youth, when she was working through the sexual abuse she said she suffered as a teenager. Now, she said, she swims in awe of the world around her.

There is ego involved, of course. But her swim has helped her turn a corner, she said, adding that she hopes it will empower others her age.

“I hope a couple will say, ‘I want to live life like that at this age,’ ” Ms. Nyad said. “I want the candle to burn bright. We have changed a lot. Our parents’ generation, at 60, they considered that old age. I’m in the middle of middle age.”

We know one person who might say something similar about the agony of writing a challenging book.

Another great Nyad article is here at Second Act.