Do Rivers Talk

Recently, I was out fishing with my three year old daughter and something struck me. As we walked along the water it was if the unmistakable sound of the mountain stream was saying something to me. It was soothing, as the sound of a flowing river always is, but it was as if there was something behind the words. As we walked I kept pondering the thought, but couldn't make any more out of it.

At one point, I even asked Cameron if she could tell me what the river was saying. She couldn't, but with her limited vocabulary tried nonetheless. She said something, in what could have been Swahili for all I know, but the effort was greatly appreciated. My reasoning for asking a three year old was simple. I figured that she was in direct contact with God just a few short years ago, so there was the possibility that she could be able to understand what the flowing water was saying. I neglected to take into account her limited vocabulary. Now that I think about it, she probably did tell me what the river was saying, I just couldn't understand what she was saying. But isn't this always the case with young children? They know what they're saying, even if we can't quite understand it. And it's my contention that they know what the river is saying as well.

But that doesn't get me any closer to answering the question of whether or not rivers talk, or rather, what they are saying, because as you can probably tell, I think they do say something. The interesting thing is that I've begun to conclude that what's being said is beyond words.

I think the answer lies in silence. In fact Henry David Thoreau's observation may well hold the answer: "In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood."

So that's more than likely the answer to the question of whether or not rivers talk. Through the silence that is experienced anywhere in the vicinity of a river the answer is a resounding YES. Yes they do and they do it through the silence.