Water

Frank sat by the water mill. It reminded him...reminded him...of his previous life. The rush of the water, the weeded wetness downstream, chuntered by like his now lost, long-gone, old life under a different name. Around and around in the current swirled the consciousness of Dr F.L. Dearie, né Mills.

The fact that people pay for bottled water boggles the mind. It needs to be shipped, thereby creating pollution and wating fuel. It needs to have bottles to put it in, thereby wasting tons of plastic. It costs more per unit than gasoline, yet I have talked with people who complained about the high price of fuel while drinking bottled water. Turn on your tap and get the water. If that water is no good, then fix it. Get a filter. Complain to the city. Boil it. Make Kool Aid.

water, wind, air, fire, earth... the elements that make up our world. I like to think of these elements, how we respond to them and how they affect us. Water brings peace (unless it's running down the walls). Be it the glassy surface of a still lake, the mesmeric pounding of waves upon the beach, or the steady drum of rain upon the roof, there is something about water that stills the soul.

Wind disturbs the thoughts. Think of the way schoolchildren behave on a windy day – they become wind-sprites themselves, unable to settle.

Air gives life. Taste it.

Fire warms but can also destroy. Fire is that side of ourselves that can so easily get out of hand, and consume everything in its path. If we do not master it, it will master us.

Lastly, good, solid earth. We had better look after the earth, for it IS us. We come from it, it nourishes us, we return to it. It is our first and last dwelling place.

Now she´s the meanest woman that I´ve ever seen,
And when I asked for water give me gasoline.
Now, asked her for water, give me gasoline.
Lord, asked for water, give me gasoline.

(Blues by Ishmon Bracey)

To learn the value of fresh, sweet water, spend a month on a boat on the sea.

Each drop of water – which has to be carried aboard, and it ain't lightweight – becomes precious.

You learn to shower with a quart of water. If you shower at all.

To cook food, you steam it over seawater.

And you drink plenty of beer.

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!

Water finds its own level. Like the movement of information, the channels it carves to find that level cannot always be predicted.

W – A – T – E – R... Wet; life; H2O; a solvent; the ultimate sports drink; keeps you from drying out; flushes the poisons out of your system. The balance between hardness (ice) and softness (vapor)... between life (drinking) and death (drowning) – an example of moderation.