Photo by Carl Nagin
December 2004
A Sermon on Springs
by Peter Warshall
While standing over the buried stream once known as Strawberry Creek...
Writer and environmentalist Peter Warshall is completing a history of the environmental movement and was the editor of Whole Earth magazine. He delivered this sermon at last month’s 15th annual Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival in Berkeley.
Springs are watery places where good governance and healing governance and understanding governance reveal themselves. Each and every spring, from silver trickles to gushes of thunderstorm roars, calls us to meditate on and observe its unique beauty. From each a specific flow enters and joins the outer world. From each, water begins it journey. Springs can guide us to remember just how specific and local histories spring forth; how their flows configure the aqueous comedies and tragedies of human and non-human lives. We must, as those of you here at Strawberry Creek, always take pride in the unique geography of springs and creeks. You are now, consciously laying here in the grass over a creek hidden by the powers of former politicians, practicing the soul of watershed governance.
The waters of springs literally source life. Three days without water and any human, good or bad, for or against George W. Bush, is dead. Springs source life. They are generous to all; ask nothing in return. They are models for politicians; they offer sustenance and kindness.
And springs emerge from underground. They emerge from mud, rocks, from mystery, from the hidden interior of the watershed, from the unknown metabolic flows of Earth. Springs are our most precious metaphors for the unseen and unexpected at the moment they become visible — like the first images of cracked eggshells from DDT, or the flames of 9/11. Springs impress upon us: surprises are normal; accept the unexpected and invisible as forces in the governance and life of communities.
Many springs have special waters, healing waters, and they nurture healing plants. Mint is the most famous. Springs set right those in power. This is their highest calling: insuring that the waters of their citizens are pure and the food grown with the water is healing.
Springs have been gathering places, places to naturally congregate and talk, places for pilgrimage. Here in this Berkeley park are citizens working to unearth buried creeks, creeks where perhaps the Ohlone gathered and, where later, the Virgin of Guadalupe offered hope to saddened, Mexican women. Springs remind us: humans need special watery places to unify citizens of similar hearts, where they can both grieve and celebrate the endless mischief of our species. The green and sparkled spring, the fountain of life, is also community government’s pulse.
The word “rivals” comes from the Latin rivalis, meaning river. Ancients pranced on either bank, shouting and waving spears, daring the enemy to ford the waters. Mark Twain quipped: “Whiskey is for drinking; water for fighting.” In the resolution of differences, the presence of springs gives the needed perspective. Water First! Contemplating springs — the springs of the Jordan in Israel/Palestine; the springs of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia/Sudan; the springs of the Sierras in northern California on their way to SoCal — brings us back to basics.
The best citizens are water-watchers. Never minimize your love of hydro-gossip: bickering over the rain and fog or whether the water bill is fair; never exhaust your commitment and imagination in plotting a strategy to daylight Strawberry Creek from its cement and asphalted prison. Without maniacal and daily water-watching, good governance cannot evolve.
Remember, for water, quality is as important as quantity. Contaminating a spring is a criminal act. Purity is as important as gallons upon gallons; and all creatures, big and microscopic, are equal in the kingdom of water. Water is democracy’s guru: fluid and flexible, able to amass tremendous energy when it (or us) changes, re-channels, the direction of flow.
This is an old story of headwater springs, fertile mid-reaches, and a return to sea and sky. Lao-Tzu, over a millennium ago, said it well:
“The sages’ transformation of the world arises from solving the problem of water. If water is united, the human heart will be correct. If water is pure and clean, the heart of the people will readily be unified and desirous of cleanliness. Even when the citizenry’s heart is changed, their conduct will not be depraved. So the sage’s government does not consist of talking to people and persuading them, family by family. The pivot (of work) is water.”
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