Cloud, Snow and Sea are all aspects of water. Water is the underlying essence of the title of my blog. I love and revere water. I’ve swum in the sea since I was a small child. I wrote an original novel length narrative poem about Odysseus , the Greek hero of the Trojan War who devised the Trojan Horse , and had to swim for three days and nights in the open ocean after being shipwrecked by Poseidon , wondering how and why he had come to such a pass in life.

Water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface. A human body contains roughly 70% of water. However tempting it is to infer some kind of cosmic connection here, it’s probably just a fascinating coincidence The Christian tradition claims in at least one passage that the earth itself is made from water. Islam says that life itself is made of water. Thales , the father of Greek philosophy, held water as the first principal. It could be argued that the metabolic processes of life are piggybacked upon the chemical properties of water . Its strength of cohesion and adhesion. Its function as universal solvent. Its bipolar electric charge molecularly. Its high heat capacity. And the fact that ice is denser than liquid water and floats so rivers and lakes don’t freeze top to bottom in winter.

So where does water come from? A byproduct of star formation? A deposit of bombarding comets? An out-gassing of the cooling of the Earth? The Christianized Tz’utujil Maya of Guatemala tell a legend about the origin of their lake. Mother Mary was bringing a jug of water to Saint Peter when she stubbed her toe on a mountain peak. The water spilled and formed Lago Atitlán , which has been called the most beautiful lake in creation. Like so many things in this world, we know its scientific why and wherefore while the origin remains a mystery.

Lao Tzu , the ancient Chinese sage and father of Taoism viewed water as the supreme good for it benefits all without strife and is humble enough to reside in places men do not honor. Water is the weakest of things but has the patience and persistence to wear down rock.

The ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles made water, along with air, fire and earth, one of the four primal cosmogonic elements that, through the agency of the twin forces Love and Strife, ceaselessly combine and dissolve, thereby creating all that there is. Though simplistic, this is a precursor to modern atomic theory.

Here’s a poem with all this in mind.

Earth and Water, Wind and Fire

From sand, sun spreads our eye far out to sea
Where northwest wind whips waves into white caps.
Here now, these secrets clasp hands lovingly
In dancing cycles, lacking breaks or gaps.

The first four only need be moved to sing
Melodic strands into each other
Of family, none servant and none king,
Harmonic offspring of one mother.

The greatest lies are chaos and freedom,
Imposed like temper tantrums by the blind.
Nature only shares her deepest knowledge from
The patient long embrace of kind with kind.

Your kiss the taste of the all giving sea
Steals breath, gives ground, fires blood eternally.

And let me leave you with one last view of water. This video is used with the kind permission of Ultra Slo, a production company founded by Alan Teitel, who is a two time Emmy Award winning cinematographer specializing in creating unique images in slow motion and 3d. See more of his wondrous work on his YouTube channel and visit him at www.UltraSlo.com.

Marc Ladewig
Author of Odysseus-The Epic Myth of the Hero