Dear Friends of Urist McSwimmer,
It is my sincere hope that we may learn something from Urist's fate. While his decision to walk out on the river just before the spring thaw was perhaps foolhardy, his adaptability in learning to swim fast enough to keep from drowning was commendable. We should all also remember with admiration his persistence as he trained his swimming skill up to Adept - one might have thought he would stop to take a break at some point, but who are we to judge Urist's sudden fondness for the water?
It is true, we may wish to question the self-assessment of Adept Swimmer from one who chooses to simply tread in place as the water level slowly drops around him, downstream of the large dam we built this past winter. But it's undeniable that he had the practice, and managed not to drown.
Also undeniable was his love of the river, so much so that, apparently, he foreswore drinking of its waters, preferring only to swim. We have to wonder why, when presented with the options of either swimming to shore and climbing out of the river along the nice sloping ramps carved by Armok and our miners for this purpose, or simply drinking the fresh water with which he was surrounded, he chose instead to make his blissful enjoyment of the refreshing water the last thing he felt as he wasted away due to dehydration even as some of you were wading into the more fully drained areas to retrieve socks.
Yes, I dearly hope that we might learn a lesson from Urist's unfortunate end, but I have no idea what that lesson would be, as I'm sure any of you would have done exactly the same thing in his place. May you all die in magma.