Who has possession of water?
Who has possession of water? Is it as black and white as saying either no one, or everyone? Can water really have an owner? I've been mulling over these questions since our most recent Dry Run Studio meeting, and I've found that my views of water have become more philosophical rather than physical.
When thinking of the actual molecules that we perceive to comprise water, I remembered that it is constantly changing its stars or phase. Daily, water as a whole, across the entire Earth, is constantly changing from solid, to liquid, and to gas. It freezes, melts and then evaporates to the point that molecules are in constant motion and vibration around us all. This factor of water causes me to believe that water is never in the same place twice. Thus, is it a physical object we can own? I say no, it isn't something we can own. Since the molecules are shifting through all of the mediums of life, it is also affecting everyone on the planet at the same time. Thus we cannot own water, it is like a non-existent entity that people take claim. Of course, we all know that water is real and it exists all around us. We see it, we feel it, we taste it, we hear it, and we can even smell it.
This brings me to a funny idea that people have about ownership. I have also found it funny when people say they own a stream or a part of a river. Perhaps they own the land that the water sits in, but the actual water itself is always coming and going. Not one molecule of that water remains in your "possession." In a partial second, the molecules you say you own are now in your downstream neighbor's land, or in the air, and he or she will say that they now own the water. They too are then wrong because they water itself continues on its natural path. The cycle continues all over the world constantly. Why? Because water is a part of our community. Not something we own and not something that is only ours.
Travis Nietert
January 2015
Intern for Dry Run Studio “Bridge” project
