Going Commando: Not Just the Usual Nakedness

Yesterday afternoon we went marsh mucking. Yes, marsh mucking. I got into a pit of mud and detritus on purpose.

The premise is that we would learn about the grasses and animals that make the tidal marshes their home. The reality = we slid around in mud.

The difficulty in entering the mud goes away after you take that first dive and cover your body with decomposing plant matter. Once you're all "dirty," then it's playtime -- sliding, crawling commando style, helping your neighbors out of quicksand like material.

After the initiation, we played a game of hide and seek to mimic how fish would hide from bird predators. Me, being competitive to a fault, I threw my body down in the marsh grass and crawled like a Navy Seal. Despite the flies crawling on me, I remained silent, just to win the game. I loved it, the playing. And now I'm even convinced that I could survive in guerilla warfare . . .