The stream is beauty. The stream is a contributor and sustainer to surrounding beauty. The stream is peaceful. The stream, in following its intended purpose, gives peace to those who traverse its course. And the stream is treacherous. It is not treacherous from provocation by a storm, it is treacherous as it fulfills its purpose in spite of a storm.
Treacherousness in the stream is not an attitude, but a condition. It is a necessary condition to properly deal with the impact of a storm and dispense with the sudden volume of water now forced upon the mountain stream. Even though the stream stays focused on its purpose to flow in this condition, this condition is dangerous to the wader.
In the life of the stream beauty, peace, and danger cannot be separated. Each of these states, or conditions, work together in the stream’s story. As a wader, it is my responsibility to recognize the danger and my accountability is to behave accordingly.
The stream does not desire tragedy to be a part of its story, but embracing complexity, the stream accepts this as unavoidable. As a participant in the stream’s story, I take accountability to wade in a manner contributing to the joyful telling of the story.
