The Pure Joy of Creeking by Scott Williford



...sometimes you look at a river and say "no way", sometimes the river looks at you and says "no way".

The dance between the two is a beautiful thing. There is the small man, armed with a plastic boat, a small flimsy paddle, and an eye that trys to discern every small variation in current and wave.

There is the powerful river, pulled ever onward by the unstopable force of gravity. Pounding over rock and root and sand. Falling fast, falling hard.

As man looks at river, he sees both the friend, and the enemy, the thing that drives him to new heights, the thing that shakes him to his core.

Life is precious, but life is short, whether it is twenty or one hundred years. The river is old, but the river is new. The dance between the two is unknown by either.

The flow sweeps both away, and pulls along. The river flows with its reckless abandon, the man uses all his skill to resist the pull, or dance with it when it fits his desire.

Neither has full control of the other, the river does not choose where it takes its guests, only provides the path. Man does not choose his path, only modifies his course as the river allows it.

The river can survive without man, sometimes it would even be better off, the man could survive without the river, and would also too often be better for it. Both are proud, both determined.

The dance between the two is beatiful, and often tragic. One without the other is complete, yet empty. Where water falls, man will dare, and push himself beyond his limits.

Some will die in the flood, some will prosper. Some will find life, some death, but none will be left unchanged. The river is not a killer, but neither a giver of life. The two must dance, or neither will survive.

Those who never join the dance never know for sure, and those who do sometime wish they hadn't. The river takes the price that it sees fit, and gives what it deems fair.

No matter how arogant the little man gets, or how he tames the flood, only one can lead, only one can decide, which step to take, and who to take with along.