Must be the science teacher in me, but I LOVE this. The combination of profane and reverence, and then including the arts is exemplary! I'm sure these 8th graders truly benefitted from this perspective.
Water, balanced warm and salty, sloshes in my blue Neti pot. The coaxing apart of bonds dissolving into a cleansing, sinus solvent to remind me of my base mineral existence.
Water is refreshing when it is cold and I am hot in a shower or lake or sprinkler or squirt gun. It is comforting when it is hot and I am cold slowly warming my skin. Water is a million little pitter patters on my roof in the rain.
Water does boil and bubble in the pan to re-enliven my vegetables and in the kettle to bring out the spices in the tea bag. Water does grab onto my foot in the lake in an undertow and remind me of it's power.
Great piece... “water is” a teacher... one note, your description of the profanity of materialism early in the essay is missing, I feel, an important recognition... most materialists carry the underlying assumption that physical matter (if that term really has meaning at all) is primary, that it must by nature precede life, which “emerged” somehow from it... you speak to it indirectly later in the essay, but I feel a big part of a “reverential” approach would be holding open the possibility that maybe, just maybe, life itself is primary.
Agreed! And since you and I know so well that this is something we are both excited about, I was absolutely setting the stage to write about that very thing sometime soon! We should do that together!
I’ve never thought about water this way before, but I have used the poetical techniques in teaching.
Must be the science teacher in me, but I LOVE this. The combination of profane and reverence, and then including the arts is exemplary! I'm sure these 8th graders truly benefitted from this perspective.
Water, balanced warm and salty, sloshes in my blue Neti pot. The coaxing apart of bonds dissolving into a cleansing, sinus solvent to remind me of my base mineral existence.
Love this, thanks Scott!
Water is refreshing when it is cold and I am hot in a shower or lake or sprinkler or squirt gun. It is comforting when it is hot and I am cold slowly warming my skin. Water is a million little pitter patters on my roof in the rain.
Water does boil and bubble in the pan to re-enliven my vegetables and in the kettle to bring out the spices in the tea bag. Water does grab onto my foot in the lake in an undertow and remind me of it's power.
A long time ago you wrote a poem about a plastic bag and wind...can you post that too?
I was thinking about that poem myself. Yes, I will!
Great piece... “water is” a teacher... one note, your description of the profanity of materialism early in the essay is missing, I feel, an important recognition... most materialists carry the underlying assumption that physical matter (if that term really has meaning at all) is primary, that it must by nature precede life, which “emerged” somehow from it... you speak to it indirectly later in the essay, but I feel a big part of a “reverential” approach would be holding open the possibility that maybe, just maybe, life itself is primary.
Agreed! And since you and I know so well that this is something we are both excited about, I was absolutely setting the stage to write about that very thing sometime soon! We should do that together!
I would, of course, be honored… and apologies for jumping ahead 😗
No troubles! Let's write that piece!
Wish I had experienced this kind of teaching when I was in school! This is an interesting video about Viktor Schauberger and water:
https://youtu.be/yXPrLGUGZsw
Schauberger’s motto was “Comprehend and copy nature.” I came across the video in this Substack article:
https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/what-is-the-forgotten-side-of-water