Water, part 2

Another nice, thick snowfall over the weekend gave me another chance to get out and shovel the walk. I didn't ski, and I didn't build a snowman in spite of perfect conditions, but I did take another look at that beautiful, wet, white stuff.

Rev. Susan told the kids in church a story about the hydrogen atoms in a glass of water. Apparently hydrogen atoms change very little in the course of time, so the hydrogen in the glass of water has been around for something like 13 billion years; we take part in the cycle of water by drinking it; containing it, and peeing it out; so a major portion of the little girl in the front row is 13,000,000,004 years old and a major portion of me just turned 13,000,000,054.

Hah! I feel just like a lad of 13,000,000,027!

Susan's purpose, I think, in talking about water in those terms is to get kids (including us big kids) to see themselves as physically and temporally connected to everybody and everything else in this fantastic hydrospheric cycle of life on Earth. And I do, when reminded.

Often this leads to metaphysical speculations and theories that I will not bore you with - unless prodded. And the putting to words of those speculations almost always bends them out of shape so much that they lose all sense, more reason to not go there. The thing I'm repeatedly reminded of - tangential to the watery, somatic existence on this watery, cosmic planet - is the futility of trying to name it, explain it, and pin it down with language.