The northeastern USA is anything but a cultural or ecological desert. There are so many choices of things to attend: concerts, lectures, exhibitions or actions! Because I was attending a splendid performance by The American Ballet Theater up at Bard College in beautiful, lush New York state, I missed author Coleman Barks' reading from his latest translation, RUMI: THE BIG RED BOOK, at the D & R Greenway Land Trust in Princeton, New Jersey in early November. I did manage to get my hands on a copy of this beautiful book though, and in fact got a surprise signed copy because of the thoughtfulness of friends there. And what a signature it is! That gesture contains the attitude of the book! Now that the Thanksgiving festivities are over and my life is settling back into a routine (I'm being hopeful here), I have finally begun to read this book that has sat invitingly on the coffee table since early November.The introduction of RUMI: THE BIG RED BOOK has already filled me with inspiration. You who read my blog know that I am always interested in consciousness and matters of the brain, and also water, both as metaphor and physical substance. In trying to describe what it is like to "be inside a Rumi poem" Barks quotes Plotinus' metaphor for the predicament of human consciousness: a net thrown into the sea.
"We are the net. Soul is the ocean we are in, but we cannot hold on to it. We cannot own any part of what we swim within, the mystery we love so. Yet the longing we feel is there because of soul. To some degree we are what we are longing for. Some part of the ocean swims inside the fish."
Just think about how true this is. A few years ago I attended the traveling exhibition, "Bodies", when it was in Philadelphia. This extensive display of systems of the human body (skeletal, muscular, nervous, respiratory, digestive, urinary, reproductive, endocrine, and circulatory) showed how fluid living humans are. Our bodies are composed of structures to hold, regulate, or ferry fluids around. We are the water we consume, the water we bathe and swim in.
 |
| THE FALLS, ©Joy Kreves '11, ceramic & wood. |
Those are just common sense sayings if one stops to notice that humans are actually part of the environment and not just existing on or off of it. If one mistakenly thinks that God planted humans on the earth to take and take and take, then one would just think of the earth's water as another thing to use up or make a profit from instead of something whose purity and availability needs to be protected. Those who see profits from gas drilling operations do not worry that fracking chemicals have and will inevitably continue to cause pollution of our water supplies. Mistakes happen, leaks happen, and there is no correction for the damage. We are the water. In fact, The Associated Press already reported on March 11, 2008, that our already treated drinking water is FULL of pharmaceutical drugs. Our water is not pure. But it is there, for most of us in the northeast.
Perhaps you haven't heard that the earth has a water shortage now. The more than 7 billion people now living on the earth are using up the finite supply. Vast areas of the earth including parts of the USA are turning into deserts - - over decades, not over millenia. Industries of varying kinds need water to create some product so they build plants near lakes, rivers and streams. Because they "create jobs", nobody makes them clean up after themselves. The body of water gets polluted, and the people who rely on that water for drinking and washing get sick from the pollutants. Some die. This is why people who care about having water are fighting fracking in our Delaware River basin. Landowners with lakes on their property may be presented with offers for that water by corporations in much the same way that gas companies are buying (or taking) the mineral rights from landowners who now live in areas where they want to frack.
Who owns the earth? Who owns the water? "Some part of the ocean swims inside the fish." Who owns the ocean that swims inside the fish? Well, guess what? Corporations own that ocean! It is a fact that corporations like Nestle, Coca-Cola, The World Bank and American water companies are buying up water rights around the the country and the world now, because they see the earth's water crisis as a money-making opportunity. The time has already come for some populations that they only have the water they can afford to buy back from the corporation. Until someone saw this business opportunity, water was considered a free natural resource that everyone had a right to, not just those who could afford it.
This is why last year's exhibit of "Festival of Trees" at the Morven Museum in Princeton, New Jersey upset me. The museum was filled with many Christmas trees, each decorated by some local organization. Christmas is another PR opportunity for the corporations who know that water on and in our earth is already disappearing at an unsustainable rate. The D & R Greenway Land Trust's tree celebrated untamed acres saved from development and the multitude of wildlife that lives on those acres. The American Water Company had a tree there also. The American Water Company's Christmas tree was simply a propaganda tree done to create positive feelings about a corporations that actually buy up municipal water systems and sell it back to the cities at a higher price after "treatment". According to Judy Keen in a USA Today 4/21/2010 article,
"American Water, which operates in 35 states, is discussing deals with 75 municipalities and other entities -- the most in at least four years, CEO Don Correll says." "Selling or leasing water systems isn't always a good deal, says Wenonah Hauter of Food & Water, a non-profit group. Some cities that do so are 'mortgaging their future' by ceding control of a vital asset, she says, and rates often climb."
I grew up not far from Pekin, Illinois, whose water system was sold to Illinois American, part of American Water, in 1982. The city manager at that time since said "Selling a water system to a private company is 'a terrible, terrible mistake'".
The American Water Company Christmas tree was decorated with their logo on plastic water bottles! How lovely! How environmentally friendly! How infuriating! An advertisement for this year's Christmas tree exhibit at The Morven brought back those feelings, especially since I had just watched a video of Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians and of Food and Water Watch, who will speak at The Institute For Advanced Study in Princeton this Wednesday, Nov. 30th on "The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water. As for the Morven's exhibit? There are so many exhibits a fine museum could have, even around the Christmas theme. Why allow it to become a PR event for corporations? Oh, ...perhaps the water company donates money to The Morven! I forgot! Art museums and entire exhibitions are bought up, too.
I think I'll go dive back into the inspirational waters of Rumi now to wash these toxic dealings out of my mind by reading verses of love. Merry Christmas, Everyone!
