Ehrlich, Gretel, “On Water”, “The Solace of Open Spaces” (Viking 1985)

Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are. We are often like rivers: careless and forceful, timid and dangerous, lucid and muddied, eddying and gleaming, still. Lovers, farmers, and artists have one thing in common, at least–a fear of “dry spells,” dormant periods in which we do no blooming, internal droughts only the waters of imagination and psychic release can civilize. All such matters are delicate of course. But a good irrigator knows this: too little water brings on the weeds while too much degrades the soil the way easy money can trivialize a person’s initiative (84).