What’s up?
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing. Just watching the river.”
“It’s pretty high right now.”
“Yeah. Biggest flood I can remember in a while at least.”
“Lotta water.”
“Yeah. A lot. You notice how many people come to watch it?”
“I did notice. It’s funny. Nobody comes to this park normally, but you add a bunch of water and people line up to watch it.”
“It’s nature. They’re looking for something outside themselves. Something uncontrolled. Something new. Something untamed. They’re looking at what drove the caveman back into the caves. And when they’re tired of looking at the elemental fury of it they’re happy because they know they can go back to their homes, shut the door, turn on the air conditioning, and ignore it. It reminds them that the world isn’t as safe as they are used to… that contrast makes their safety feel more secure.”
“You mean they come here to be afraid?”
“Just a little afraid. The safe kind of afraid of a Freddy Krueger movie… not the new one where they made him banal and normal, out of the headlines… the first Freddy… that one was scarier.”
“They come to be afraid?”
“Yeah. Awe and fear are really close. They come. The watch the river, they listen to the sound of it, the unstoppable roar of it. They see trees moved by it. They fear it. This is the river that ancient man created gods to. This sort of power requires worship. It requires our attention. It demands it.”
“And then they go home and forget it?”
“They don’t forget it. They never forget it… but they do hide from it. They can’t help but watch it… but that doesn’t mean they want to live it. It’s one thing to glimpse the greatness and awesomeness of nature… it’s OK in small doses, but too much is too humbling. We’re too self-important for that these days. It’s too much. Watch them. Nobody stays for more than 10 minutes or so.”
“Well it IS just water. It gets pretty boring.”
“No, not boring, intimidating.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Since sunrise.”
“It’s after lunch now!”
“I know. I just had a ham salad sandwich.”
“That stuff will kill you.”
“I don’t think so. Listen, I hope I don’t make you mad or anything, but do you mind just leaving me here alone for a while to watch? I’ll be over tonight. I just want to watch it a little longer.”
“What’re you looking for?”
“In the water?”
“Yeah.”
“Answers.”
“To what?”
“Everything.”
“Nothing. Just watching the river.”
“It’s pretty high right now.”
“Yeah. Biggest flood I can remember in a while at least.”
“Lotta water.”
“Yeah. A lot. You notice how many people come to watch it?”
“I did notice. It’s funny. Nobody comes to this park normally, but you add a bunch of water and people line up to watch it.”
“It’s nature. They’re looking for something outside themselves. Something uncontrolled. Something new. Something untamed. They’re looking at what drove the caveman back into the caves. And when they’re tired of looking at the elemental fury of it they’re happy because they know they can go back to their homes, shut the door, turn on the air conditioning, and ignore it. It reminds them that the world isn’t as safe as they are used to… that contrast makes their safety feel more secure.”
“You mean they come here to be afraid?”
“Just a little afraid. The safe kind of afraid of a Freddy Krueger movie… not the new one where they made him banal and normal, out of the headlines… the first Freddy… that one was scarier.”
“They come to be afraid?”
“Yeah. Awe and fear are really close. They come. The watch the river, they listen to the sound of it, the unstoppable roar of it. They see trees moved by it. They fear it. This is the river that ancient man created gods to. This sort of power requires worship. It requires our attention. It demands it.”
“And then they go home and forget it?”
“They don’t forget it. They never forget it… but they do hide from it. They can’t help but watch it… but that doesn’t mean they want to live it. It’s one thing to glimpse the greatness and awesomeness of nature… it’s OK in small doses, but too much is too humbling. We’re too self-important for that these days. It’s too much. Watch them. Nobody stays for more than 10 minutes or so.”
“Well it IS just water. It gets pretty boring.”
“No, not boring, intimidating.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Since sunrise.”
“It’s after lunch now!”
“I know. I just had a ham salad sandwich.”
“That stuff will kill you.”
“I don’t think so. Listen, I hope I don’t make you mad or anything, but do you mind just leaving me here alone for a while to watch? I’ll be over tonight. I just want to watch it a little longer.”
“What’re you looking for?”
“In the water?”
“Yeah.”
“Answers.”
“To what?”
“Everything.”
The What’s up? by Rich Griffith, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
July 1st, 2010 at 11:58 PM
Did you find the answers?
I used to cut school (back in high school) to go up to Falls park in Sioux Falls and stare at the water. I could — and did — do that for hours some days.
Personally, I never found answers that way but I had a lot of great internal monologues and always felt more relaxed when I left.
Chris K´s last [type] ..WhatsUp Gold Engineer’s Toolkit
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:06 AM
No answers yet… but it’s very relaxing… and this dialog wasn’t entirely made up. Sort of an amalgam of conversations that took place where that picture was taken over the past couple days.
Rich G.´s last [type] ..What’s up