From primordial beginnings of a nameless watercourse to the activities of our
ancestors and the discovery by a western European explorer 400 years ago the
Delaware river has continued to flow to the ocean.
With historical minds we recall activities along the river of ancients and relative
new-comers. From those historical examples we have lessons for today.
Through the artists senses we understand patterns of experiences and have
aesthetic enjoyment. Through artistic interpretation of the River, we can look
beyond our normal boundaries and offer unique insights about the world around us.
Science shows us methods of preservation and sustainability and these approaches
affect our river of tomorrow and how life and imagination will spring from it.
Recreation enables us to pause just long enough to let the world around us
speak of things other than ourselves. One can contemplate this whether it be
kayaking, fishing, walking a stream or gazing at rapids. The river offers us
opportunities to let the ordinary become magical, sublime; even sacred.
A Reflection – by Philip Ball
Every day, every passing second, water is on the move. The rivers flow, the oceans perform their slow and elegant gyrations, the clouds congeal and weep. Each 3100 years, a volume of water equivalent to all the oceans pass through the atmosphere, carried there by evaporation and removed by precipitation… this constant overturn of water between the reservoirs on land, in sea and in sky is called the hydrological cycle, and it is as crucial for life on Earth as is the presence of liquid water in the first place.
By: Ken Metcalf on June 3, 2009
at 2:39 am