Checking In with @waterkeepermark and Swim Drink Fish Ambassador Loren King
Mark is Checking In with Swim Drink Fish Ambassadors about living with social distancing. Here, Loren King answers Mark’s questions.
Loren King is a professor and marathon swimmer. He holds a doctorate from M.I.T. and teaches at Wilfrid Laurier University. In August 2016 he swam across Lake Ontario following the classic Marilyn Bell route, and in August 2019 he successfully swam across the English Channel. He and Madhu Nagaraja are the founding members of the Great Lakes Trust, and Great Lakes Open Water (GLOW).
MM: How are you doing?
LK: A bit stir-crazy and missing the water, but on the whole fine!
MM: Where are you living and what are your daily routines?
LK: I’m in Hamilton, near McMaster University, where my wife, Kim Dej, is currently acting Vice-Provost (faculty), which involves a great many pandemic-related Zoom meetings every day! While working at home isn’t new for either of us, keeping the kids engaged (and fed, and … well, just getting me and them awake at a decent hour) is a challenge. I take the dog for a lot of walks, and we’re lucky to have plenty of park paths and forest trails in our neighbourhood, so long hikes have replaced my usual pool swims.
MM: What are you looking forward to most?
LK: Getting back in the pool, getting to the lake for some long swims, and the kids getting back to their friends and summer activities.
MM: Do you believe the Covid-19 crisis will leave lasting scars on our world? If so, how?
LK: I do, yes. This pandemic has shown us the critical importance of strong public institutions, oversight, and expertise.
Canadians of all political stripes used to agree on this, so it’s unsettling to watch a cheapened brand of populist conservatism rail against vital public goods and longstanding traditions (in the U.S. most obviously, but alarmingly also here at home) with justifications that range from cynical hypocrisy to fact-free idiocy.
In prosperous times it’s fatally easy to imagine that private-sector innovation is somehow unrelated to public health, education, and infrastructure. Hard times shatter that complacency. I worry that, across the political spectrum, we won’t learn the right lessons from this public health and eldercare crisis, and that if we do, those lessons will be quickly forgotten.
MM: If you were a marine animal, what would it be?
LK: Fresh-water? Lake Sturgeon, definitely! Salt-water? Maybe a basking shark (a lifestyle choice).
MM: Are you currently involved in any citizen science engagement in your community? Swim Guide? Gassy? Monitoring Hub? iNaturalist? Other?
LK: This year the Great Lakes Trust had a little over $1,000 to share with our charitable partners, so we divided that support between Lake Ontario Waterkeeper initiatives, on the one hand, and citizen science projects coordinated by the Bay Area Restoration Council here in Hamilton, on the other.
As always, the Great Lakes Trust fund is managed, and awards issued, by the Hamilton Community Foundation, which has been proactive this spring in supporting urban community health efforts during the Covid-19 crisis.
And as always, it’s an honour and delight to work with so many committed community partners in protecting our watersheds and home waters, and especially with our primary charitable partner, Swim Drink Fish.
Read more from the Checking In with @waterkeepermark series:
Tanis Rideout
Jennifer Baichwal
Joseph Boyden
Dave Bidini
Denise Donlon
Wade Davis
Connect with us on Twitter, @LOWaterkeeper and @waterkeepermark.
