Rivers are a perfect metaphor of the common good... and the evil of private property, short term thinking, and greed.
Rivers flows freely, a picture of common grace, providing water for drink, transportation, power, irrigation, cleansing, recreation, beauty.
As long as a community learns the seasonal changes and organizes life around them, the river continues to be an abundant gift for everyone, up and down stream.
But you can guess the rest of the story. Creating scarcity by diverting too much water for local agriculture, using the river to transport waste rather than composting, or building a dam rather than water wheel for power, in short, stealing from your neighbor downstream.
Next thing you know they attack you and you feel justified in attacking back and war breaks out and no one can see anymore what is clear as day: The gifts of the common good are for everyone. They can not be hoarded, access can not be sold to the highest bidder, gifts can not be polluted, or their beauty desecrated.
Once these things happen, the only way forward is backward to mutual respect and gratitude for the gifts of the common good, expressed through a healthy relationship to the land, air, rivers and sea.
Rivers flows freely, a picture of common grace, providing water for drink, transportation, power, irrigation, cleansing, recreation, beauty.
As long as a community learns the seasonal changes and organizes life around them, the river continues to be an abundant gift for everyone, up and down stream.
But you can guess the rest of the story. Creating scarcity by diverting too much water for local agriculture, using the river to transport waste rather than composting, or building a dam rather than water wheel for power, in short, stealing from your neighbor downstream.
Next thing you know they attack you and you feel justified in attacking back and war breaks out and no one can see anymore what is clear as day: The gifts of the common good are for everyone. They can not be hoarded, access can not be sold to the highest bidder, gifts can not be polluted, or their beauty desecrated.
Once these things happen, the only way forward is backward to mutual respect and gratitude for the gifts of the common good, expressed through a healthy relationship to the land, air, rivers and sea.