Rochester, New York. A community spoiled with a variety of opportunities regarding its water sources. It is situated on Lake Ontario and is home to the Genesee River, Erie Canal, Irondequoit Bay and dozens of nearby creeks and streams. The water here continues to teach me many things. Its all-knowing wisdom is full of ageless lessons all around. I have found that the best way to greet it is with an open mind. As I have grown to acknowledge what water means to me personally, I have also begun to recognize the connection we share with it as humans. This connection is no coincidence and our relationship with water isn’t just that our bodies physically require it to survive. As a culture we have this intimate and somewhat subconscious obsession with water. We swim, boat, bathe and even build houses to overlook it. But too often we see water as a resource and refuse to acknowledge that it is a mirror image of ourselves. Maybe this is why when we look into a placid stream we find our reflection staring right back.
Like us, water is uniform on an atomic level, but as the atoms come together to form a greater entity, we start to characterize it as an individual body, distinguishable from others. These bodies set examples for us as we look on. If we look closely we can see that water is not greedy, but rather accepting. By observing its behavior I have learned some very important things. It does not simply take on an obstacle all at once. It patiently persists and over time erodes what is standing in its way. When given a chance water knows where to go. It flows gracefully in the path that nature has chosen for it and only a fraction of itself is visible from the surface, much like ourselves.
Regardless of Rochester’s history of water pollution, I am grateful to have grown up here because of my exposure to the water. When we are finally ready to stop polluting our minds, maybe we can stop polluting our water too.