Alev Lyte Croutier

To People of The World:

Water is the most valuable element in our lives. It is a dancer of many forms. It makes sounds of many pitches-passionate, soothing, and ethereal. Water’s hypnotic innocence hides nothing; its tumult destroys civilizations yet it is still a mystery, full of endless associations, sacred and profane, creative and destructive. Water has been a spiritual source in every culture. Springs, wells, and streams were worshipped because of their ability to heal.

Since human beings are almost all water, we need water to replace ourselves; otherwise we die. We can go for a long time without food but not without water, yet we have a tendency to take water for granted. In the modem environment, the domestication of water has led to its desecration. We take showers in it, flush toilets, wash dishes and launder with water. It has become a generic - always available through a magical pipeline. But as all things that become overly available, they have a tendency to lose their virtue. “Water as a commodity has become a mere ‘cleaning fluid’ devoid of symbolism and respect,” comments philosopher Ivan Iliac. We have stopped expressing our gratitude for giving us so much.

Photo by Vincent Thau

“Water is sometimes sharp and sometimes strong, sometimes acid and sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet and sometimes thick or thin, sometimes is seen bringing hurt or pestilence, sometimes health-giving and sometimes poisonous.”

Leonardo da Vinci wrote. “It suffers change into as many natures as are the different places through which it passes. And as the mirror changes with the color of its object, it so alters with the nature of the place, becoming: noisome, laxative, astringent, sulfurous, salty, incarnadined, mournful, raging, angry, red, yellow, green, black, blue, greasy, fat or slim. Sometimes it starts a conflagration, sometimes it extinguishes one; is warm and is cold, carries away or sets down, hollows out or builds up, tears down or establishes, fills or empties, raises itself or burrows down, speeds or is still; it can cause both life and death, nourishes at times and at others does the contrary; sometimes submerges the earth with great floods. In time and with water everything changes.”

Water has its own special language. I believe that by observing the ways that people have communicated with water throughout history, we can gain a deeper awareness of this most precious element. A responsible appreciation of water is fundamental to our ecological, environmental, and spiritual values.