The Tiber River Spoke

The man was standing on the bank of the Tiber River in Rome one Saturday afternoon in July. He was relaxed and reflective and clearly not in a hurry to be somewhere else. He watched the flow of the water, the eddying and the currents that cut across the surface; the significance of the hidden depths. Small pieces of branch wood flowed past. The man studied the current of the river for quite sometime and then he asked the river:

Have you ever been tired of running?
Why are you always moving in one direction?

The Tiber river did not reply. The man strolled back and forth on the spot where he had stood; taking pleasure from the cool breeze that was coming from the river. Then, from a distance, he heard a faint echo and had to concentrate in order to catch the words:

You were there, and I was also there.
Now you are standing here, and I am here.
You are present, and so am I.
Because I think of both there and here!

The Tiber river spoke. A smile creased the man’s face; he looked up and down the length of the flow, nodded and agreed with the river.

The man knew, just as the river had known, that rivers exist everywhere. But the man wondered about his existence. Does thinking make people exist? He recalled what he had read in a book a long time ago. Descartes had written something similar to the messages from the voice of the river. The man felt contented and was thankful to the river for telling him to think in order to exist.

It was evening and the man again felt the cool breeze from the surface of the Tiber river. He could smell the mountains from where the river had risen. The man spoke again to the river.

Ever have you changed your course, your direction?
Have you ever gone back to the age of puberty?
And regaining your vigor and the freshness?
And returning to the time when you were at your best?