R I V E R A L C H E M Y


CURRENT PHILOSOPHY SOMETIMES YOU CAN STEP IN THE SAME RIVER TWICE GREEK PHILOSOPHER HERACLITUS wrote fa-


mously, “You can never step into the same river twice.” While this is an impressive line for any river guide to quote, without context it means very little. Consider that only about 100 sentences of Hera-


clitus’ work have survived through the ages, and this is the only one anybody would recognize. He marched to a different drummer in an era when his peers (that go by such unpronounceable names as Xenophanes, Anaximander, Pisistratos, and Pythag- oras—yes, the Pythagorean Theorem guy) all under- stood the world as one of opposites. It was common- ly thought human experience was a battle between good and evil, light and dark, right and left. Heraclitus, on the other hand, was all about “go-


ing with the flow.” What he was getting at with his no- double-dipping rule was that change was constant. We can’t step in the same river twice because the flow of the river has replaced the water. If you put your foot in the same spot again, it will be a different river. So enjoy the moment, he argued, when it is gone, it’s gone. Recently, a 30-hour drive west for a season of


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