"May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
Sculpture Falls sits along the Austin greenbelt between the Hill of Life Trail and Mopac. It's often pretty crowded, especially when there's water along the creek in the warmer months, but there are times you can catch it at a peaceful moment to rest or soak your feet and think about life and what it means to be alive.
What does it mean to be alive? To be here, witnessing. What does it mean to be dead? To be gone. To be not here. These are things we don't understand but believe we do. Heaven and hell, Paradise and Purgatory, nothingness and oblivion. There are only myths and legends here.
But the river is as here as I am and the rock is more here than I can ever be. We're taught that the rock and the river aren't alive, but does that mean they are dead? No. So there's something else. And that means something.
The difference between living and existing. Perhaps we got the shorter end of the stick. Perhaps existing as the rock does and the as river does is a better form of living. The rock lives life on a larger scale, aging and changing forms and evolving over millions of years. It might not be spritely, lively or brisk, but it is strong, determined and community-oriented. A rock never leaves its home unless forced to, and it usually goes where it goes with all its friends and neighbors and settles in again. The river is a collective ecosystem sustaining life, the same as we are, the same as all living things are, only at a higher level.
Perhaps the rock and the river aren't any less alive than we are, they are just alive differently than we are. They are nature. And we should respect nature — respect it as something sacred, as something greater than we are. To respect it is to not only stop actively hurting it but to actually take care of it, to worship it: To try to understand it, to listen to what it's telling us. We need to learn from its example, not disregard it as just a rock or just a river.
Alive:
1. Having life, in opposition to dead; living; being in a state in which the organs perform their functions; as, an animal or a plant which is alive.
2. In a state of action; in force or operation; unextinguished; unexpired; existent; as, to keep the fire alive; to keep the affections alive.
3. Exhibiting the activity and motion of many living beings; swarming; thronged.
4. Sprightly; lively; brisk.
5. Having susceptibility; easily impressed; having lively feelings, as opposed to apathy; sensitive. Tremblingly alive to natures laws. (Falconer)
6. Of all living (by way of emphasis). Northumberland was the proudest man alive. (Clarendon)"
