David Arkell Reflects

Some thoughts on the watery journey towards and into The Great Rinsing.

Where did it start? Up in the clouds of a few heads, maybe. Passing into and down mountains streams, brains searching for the sparks to ignite the flows of energy. Light rain falling on distant mountain slopes, new ideas building, some soaked into the hillside and forgotten, some taken on downstream, growing. A widening array of creative forces throwing ideas and images and thoughts and themes and sounds and pictures and music and movement and wonder into the rising river torrent, some changing course, some going against the flow, some channelling in new directions, challenging, all ever onwards closer to the frame.

We all are a big crew, we’re onboard, sometimes floating, sometimes forging, sometimes fretting, fighting, flying, fantasising in faith following the flow. Nobody really seemed to know where we were, whither we were going when we started, wandering, wondering where it would end, where we’d go – we seemed to be staying faithful to the reality of the water cycle in nature, as if each droplet or atom of water has either its own mind or is powerless to be driven round a diagram.
We grow into a semblance of order, sporadic showers ganging up into a single front. Disciplined, directed, destinies decided, directing the dream, steering the stream, harnessing help, co-ordinating crew, tweaking and tinkering and twisting. Dates. Script. Cast ...

The die is cast, the cast is set, the set is prepared, preparations in progress, progress seems slow, the show is upon us. There’s electricity in the air. A storm could break. Nervous energy builds up within and between. All is set, yet all agitates.
I feel hot, I feel cold, butterflies abound, thirsty, need the loo, feel sick, want to hide, but we are strong together, we have power, we give to and feed off each other, and suddenly we are amongst dozens of arrivers, and they become part of us, we are all together.

There’s a lull. I fight a wave of panic. I force my eyes shut. I am at the sea. I am in the water. I become the water. I am calm, I am calmed. I am strong. We are together. We work together. We work.

Puddles on the pavement.
Tears on the tarmac.
Mischief in the mist.
Calm in the cooling.
Closure under the clouds.
Pleasure in the process.
Pride in the production.
Mystery in the mist.
Meaning in the madness.
Memories magnificent.

We try to improve, make little changes, nothing is quite set, nothing’s perfect. And as we move on we hope we have touched some people - like we’ve been touched ourselves - made them think, made them smile, and take a look at their world, it’s our world. Living the dream of a better, cleaner, safer world, fearing the nightmare the dream won’t come, clinging to the rainbow of hope, goading each other to think globally by acting locally – is this it?