River House

That the world is stable and its order fixed is perhaps the most persistent human delusion. How many errors have been made on the assumption that what was is ? To a young child the house he lives in is permanent and unchanging, an eternal verity. But it is clear to the man who keeps the house that if it is treated as an eternal verity it will soon perish altogether. Against the constant jeopardy of decay there is the necessity of constant renewal. And there are, of course, the maxims to the effect that you cannot go home again, or step into the same river twice.

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To a river, as to any unfettered natural force, an obstruction is merely an opportunity. For the river's nature is to flow; it is not just spatial in dimension, but temporal as well. All things must yield to the impulse of the water in time, if not today then tomorrow or in a thousand years. If its way is obstructed then it goes around or under it or over it and, flowing past it, wears it away. Men may dam it and say that they have made a lake, but it will still be a river. It will keep its nature and bide its time, like a caged wild animal alert for the slightest opening. In time it will have its way; the dam like the ancient cliffs will be carried away piecemeal in the currents.

Wendell Berry

The Unforeseen Wilderness

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Reka Dom (River House)

2018

oil and copper on panel