Swimming, Swimming, In My Swimming Pool...

I strongly believe that everyone should learn how to swim.  Of course there's the whole not drowning thing, but it's also a wonderful fall back for when you injure yourself in almost any other sport.  Swimming is the lowest impact sport I can think of and it allows you the opportunity to exercise almost every part of your body, although in general it is pretty heavily weighted toward an upper body workout. 
People who aren't actually swimmers will often tell me that they cannot swim because their bodies are constructed in such a way that they sink.  I have to bite my tongue when I hear this because it's not socially appropriate to respond by informing them that statistically speaking only 5% of the population is proven to sink whereas the rest of us can float.  The likelihood that they fall into that 5% is substantially lower than the likelihood that they've never been taught proper body position in the water and that they're just doing it wrong.  I also refrain from saying that because I assume that the people who really want to learn how to swim have already figured out how to do it and those who remain would prefer to make excuses than simply fess up to their lack of desire to really work on it.  Feel free to think me arrogant for saying this.
I always think of swimming as my sport.  I grew up swimming every day of the summer in the outdoor pool in Kalispell, Montana, rain or shine.  There were a couple of winters as a kid that I swam laps at the local health club, keeping track of the miles in an effort to add them up to equal the distance across Flathead Lake (28 miles) a feat that had actually been completed by a man who was later to become my coach.  I swam competitively in middle school and high school.  Like many of my friends I became a lifeguard and swim instructor at the very pool where I myself had been taught as a child.  The water simply feels like home.
Maybe another day I'll tell you charming stories about my fondness for swimming and growing up with it, but for today it's worth noting that I'm able to move my injured leg pretty freely in the water without pain.  It's not skating, but I had been concerned that there would be no way to exercise my quads without stressing my knee.  Since I'm not sure how long the recovery for this is going to take, it's relieving to discover that I have some means of preventing atrophy as well as endorphin withdrawal.  Going from 15 hours of exercise a week to none is a horrible idea.
<posted on 3.27.12>