A stay by the sea brings me the peace I so desire. No more rushing from one appointment to the next.
A few days of space for contemplation and to take a deep breath. The sound of the waves during a rousing wind, of the surf in the days after the summer storm, of the gentle lapping when there is no wind, they wash away restless thoughts and my head seems to become clearer.
A century ago, the sea was only just being discovered as a place of relaxation, and only for the rich. Until the end of the 19th century, the sea was seen as dangerous, a body of water that could turn into a devouring monster at any moment. But in some ancient cultures, the sea was revered as the primordial mother, from which all life on earth was created. For me, Claude Debussy’s beautiful piece of music “La mer” unites both points of view in an undulating melody that sounds calming, then rousing, then threatening. A synthesis of trust, fear, care and calmness, sadness and comfort. But the sea is no longer that ancient sea.
There is a dreamy Dutch song by Boudewijn de Groot and Lennart Nijgh, from the mid-1960s, which struck me at the time with its simple, melancholic tone. “De waterdrager” (The Water Carrier) is about an old man who carries water to the sea every day because he is afraid that the sun will evaporate and dry up the sea. Even then, it was a completely nonsensical idea, and now, with the threat of rising sea levels, it is even more so. But the title and lyrics contain a reference to the expression “carrying water to the sea”: doing unnecessary or pointless work. The water carrier is busy with this all day long, and at night he rests contentedly, knowing that he has persevered another day and “saved the sea from the sun.”
Now, however, I think I recognize a deeper layer in it, a reference to the divinity of the sea.
The great primordial sea that we call God wants to be nourished. It craves our love, our attention. It waits with boundless patience for the moment when we turn around in our restless search for deep, lasting peace, enduring love, eternal unity. Which we will never find as long as we search outside ourselves. Only when we turn to our deepest inner self, when we begin to nourish the thirsty rose within us with the water of our daily attentive love, only then do we begin the journey toward lasting unity and peace. Then the water bearer of this age, Aquarius, comes to help us with the living water, to refresh us in a very direct way.
The 21st-century industrialized human being is primarily concerned with the pursuit of comfort and pleasure. In addition, practical solutions must be found for the daily problems and issues that horizontal life presents us with. Unnoticed, we as humanity have strayed miles away from our destination. We have increasingly bent natural creation to our will, even resorting to atomic fission and genetic manipulation. And now, with Artificial Intelligence, we have created a juggernaut that may end up hindering us more than helping us. With every new invention, we are confronted with the opposite of help. With major, often unforeseeable disadvantages and obstacles. For which, in turn, a new solution must be devised, and so we forge an enormous chain that binds us ever more to the horizontal.
Did Nijgh and De Groot have a visionary moment when they wrote this text? I hear a hyperbole here that outlines the thinking and behaviour of the industrialized world—every invention seems to be a reason for greater hubris. “Technology stands for nothing,” I often heard in the past; it seemed like a slogan. But the text also shows the loner who thinks he can act against this way of thinking. Nijgh and De Groot saw childish arrogance in the person who thinks he must control the earth and its largest living organism. And also save it from the sun, when the sea and sun normally work together optimally. But aren’t we all, in fact, that anxious water carrier? Don’t we all have the tendency to want to control life? To which sea do we carry our water every day?
It is a quiet morning by the sea. I walk barefoot through the low waves of the rising tide. Small children play with buckets and spades near a dilapidated sandcastle from the previous day. They rush to keep the water flowing out of the moat at the right level now that the tide is going out. Perhaps the song was simply written for a child who experienced this phenomenon for the first time and thought it had to replenish the receding seawater. Even so, it has produced a beautiful song.
Water Carrier
The sea falls, the sea descends,
and the sun rises, burning brightly.
The fearful water carrier fetches more water,
for the sea is drying up.
The sea rises, the sea ascends,
and slowly the sun descends.
The water carrier toils and pants,
perhaps he will make it today.
For the sea must be saved from the sun.
For the sea must be saved from the sun.
Water carrier, carry the water to the sea.
Water carrier, carry the water to the sea.
The sea kisses, the sea extinguishes
and quenches the hot evening sun.
The water carrier sleeps and rests,
satisfied that he made it
and saved the sea from the sun.
And saved the sea from the sun.
Water carrier, carry the water to the sea.
Water carrier, carry the water to the sea.
The sea blazes, the sea burns,
the water carrier scorches his back.
The sun rises in the rear,
the water carrier hurries back.
For the sea must be saved from the sun.
For the sea must be saved from the sun.
Water carrier, carry the water to the sea.
Water carrier, carry the water to the sea.
Carry the water to the sea.
Carry the water to the sea.
Lennaert Nijgh / Boudewijn de Groot
Boudewijn de Groot – Waterdrager
