A few weeks ago, I was in La Guajira, Colombia, and I spent time at this location where the ocean meets with the river. The following reflection was born there, but it was later polished and written during my time on the River Magdalena in Mompox, Colombia.
The Ocean is more metaphysical; the River more spiritual.
The immense Ocean, like Platonic forms or Cantorian sets, outstretches our imagination. It goes beyond our comprehension. The Ocean is abstraction. In the Ocean lived the great gods, and in the River lived the spirits. The flowing River, like the tales of Homer or the poems of Yeats, feeds our soul and reflects our being. The River is spiritual.
The Ocean is not something we belong to, nor is it something that belongs to us. We cannot drink its water; and what we leave in it, it returns back to us. Its creatures, like the inventions of the metaphysicians, are strange to us. The River nourishes us and gives us what we need, and what we leave in it tends to rest there for ages. The River has its scars just like us, and in the River we find creatures like distant cousins that more resemble us.
As Hume taught us, man cannot stay long in the depths of metaphysical speculation before our splenetic humor requires us to step away. So too is man’s time on the Ocean always temporary. We cross it with reverence; we do not make our home there. The River, like a warm hearth, is something that lives alongside us.
The Ocean is more metaphysical; the River is more spiritual.
And this is not to say
that either is better or worse;
while one may be deeper than the other
both are equally profound
and we, human all too human,
must swim in both.
MENTAL AXE 