When I was in high school, I went with a group to Moab for white water rafting. As we drifted down the stream, our guide taught us about eddies.
Eddies are formed when part of the current splits off, spinning a section of the river back towards its source for a brief moment. Just like water flows in the streams of nature, humanity drifts in the stream of time. When a change interrupts the natural flow, the denizens of time turn back to their sources. In fact, history is a never ending cycle of going back to the sources.
Take the Renaissance. They went back to the texts of the ancient Greeks and Romans, celebrating the glory of humanity.
“What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god – the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!”
– Shakespeare, Hamlet
What grew out of this was science, art, and new heights to which humanity could grow.
The stream of time flowed a little bit farther before another eddy appeared—that is, the Reformation. It too helped humanity reach new heights, this time by emulating the God and reflecting on the fallen state of man. The conflicts divided nations. Interestingly enough, however, it empowered the citizens inside them. With the use of the printing press and the sharing of information, our first real step towards globalization began. John Donne illustrates this principle when he states that, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every piece is a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.”
In this case, “Europe” isn’t just a generation of people, it’s everyone who’s ever lived—we feel the consequences of our history today, lifting the mountains and pockmarking valleys. We grow and develop as humanity. And as we look back, we move forward.
-The Humanists
Sydney Sands, Ryan Young, Isabella Boss, Grant Baldwin
What are we "going back to" right now? I feel like this is an uncommon way of looking at today's world. Normally we just hear about progress and moving forward and changing the world.
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DeleteWell, I feel like in this modern era we are, in a sense, looking back at it all. With such wide use of technology we have all of history at our fingertips. Also, in this day in age we are taught about history as a primary subject in school. Many claim that we need to learn about the past to have a better future. Take clothing trends for example, this is a small scale sample of how the past is constantly re-emerging in present day, whether on purpose or not. I feel that people are inspired by the past all the time but might not always recognize it.
This is a great analogy! This may be a dumb example, but another analogy of constantly going back to the sources is in clothing style! I feel like a lot of times, fashion designers turn to past decades for ideas for new clothing. You can see elements of older styles incorporated into new styles which creates a whole new idea for clothing lines. I feel like the way we turn back often includes incorporating bits and pieces of old ideas to support or be a large part of a new idea we are trying to implement. It gives the new idea credibility and support because you know it worked before.
ReplyDeleteTo take the analogy just a little bit further, eddies often spin in a circle and keep floating objects (like a raft) trapped and unable to escape until the water level changes. When society experiences an "eddie" and goes back to the sources and tries to change, it almost always requires the entire society to change until the raft can continue downstream.
ReplyDeleteI have been river rafting and my guide said that when rafters get tired they can just sit in an eddy for a long time. The rafter will take a break so they can regain their strength and go further down the river. I think sometimes society "sits in an eddy" so that we can push even harder on things that matter.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great analogy. One thought that I had is that the Reformation was even larger scale than an eddy. It was more than a small segment of the river of society turning back to its sources, but rather a cultural overhaul. I'm not sure if I can think of a water analogy to represent that (which is fine since analogies aren't meant to provide a full depth explanation of an idea), but I just wanted to share that. Great piece!
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