My hike beside the coursing Eau Claire River in northcentral Wisconsin was invigorating. I figured I needed to clear my head after the year of COVID-19 and that’s exactly what I gained as thundering rapids flushed out the cobwebs in my mind. Rushing water was all I could hear. Its amber, frothy flow seemed to go on forever. That’s what got me thinking about how a river, a forever river, really does flow through us. No matter where I live or where you live. No matter how different we may be, we share the same lifeblood on this planet: Water.
I learned long ago that the water on Earth today has been circulating on this planet over eons. Whether the water is stored in our polar ice caps, our atmosphere, our seas or soils, our lakes and streams, or our planet’s life—including your body and mine—all the water of all time is our planet’s water today. Fast like a rushing river or slow like a glacier. Now in 2021 or in our great great grandmother’s time or in the time of dinosaurs. No matter our races or cultures or privileges. No matter our country or continent. No matter what: The same river of water flows through us all.
Knowing this is all we have, knowing water is life, knowing water makes everything possible, and knowing how expensive it is to clean up polluted water, why is it then that water is not always given top priority for protection everywhere? Knowing that contaminated water causes serious health concerns and even death, knowing that environmental and economic costs are directly tied to poor water quality, knowing that a lack of water drains life from a person and a place, how can it be that so many of us do not act like water stewards every single day of the year?
It is reassuring to know that the same river runs through us all. It is a river of life.
Water connects us, so it should be natural for us to feel a common responsibility to care about it, to care for it. Though we continue to struggle to make headway on water quality and quantity issues in Wisconsin and many places in the U.S. and the world, how about we use water as a bonding agent to help us unify around the common idea of ensuring healthy water resources for today and tomorrow? Let water literally bring us together in a movement of people who stand up for water protections. All of us rowing together in the same direction—for water protection—can make a significant difference as we all know there’s more energy in a river flowing than in a single drop here or there trying to make a big splash.
Water is precious—like liquid gold. The name of the river, “Eau Claire,” means “clear water” in French. Indeed, the clear water flowing beside me on my hike pumped me up to develop an even greater commitment to clear, clean water for all. That’s the least I can do as a water steward every day of the year.