Life is like a River?

[SonOfOdin]

I was thinking during my Italian lesson(no I was not paying attention) :

Isn't life like a river?
You start off from scratch, nothing and move slowly downhill. You are forced to turn according to where your parents think is best for you, as a result from their nature. Then you face numerous rocks and waterfalls, which represent problems growing up. Finally, you have alot of roads in front of you(the river delta). All branches lead to the sea, but which will you take? These are the choices you make in life, and you will eventually reach the end(the sea, death)

What do you guys think?

[Copperknickers II]

There's no cancer in rivers though. Interesting, but simplified.

[SonOfOdin]

Well yes it's quite simple, no real detail
But cancer is just another obstacle in your way, a menacing one though

[Morkonan]

... What do you guys think?

A River fits a lot of analogies.

Back in the Dark Dark Ages, before they invented rocks, I went to college. One day, I was sitting in the college activities center, pretty much by myself. There wasn't anyone else there, it was late in the afternoon.

A man came up to me, said hello and sat down at the table. This is a bit unusual, I admit. But, he seemed friendly enough and I'm able to take care of myself should he have turned out to be somewhat.. strange.

Well, anyway, the man imparted a lesson to me:

Life is like a River. It is a River of time. As you cross it, your actions and the people that you touch flow throughout time, ever going downstream, effecting others. When your journey is done, your legacy will be multiplied by the people that you have touched in your life, just as ripples travel down the stream as you cross it. (Paraphrased)

Then, he got up and left.

That was it.

Yes, it was strange. It was strange that a total stranger would come up to me in a college center in the afternoon, sit down at my table and impart such a lesson.

But, that was quite a few years ago and I have not forgotten it. So, I suppose his delivery was effective.

[SonOfOdin]

That sounds kinda weird, yet the lesson makes so much sense
You must've reflected alot on that event huh?

[Morkonan]

That sounds kinda weird, yet the lesson makes so much sense
You must've reflected alot on that event huh?

Quite a bit, actually.

From time to time, like this one, it does come up and I do remember it. When it is appropriate, I remember. When it isn't, I retain the lesson learned but don't dwell on it overmuch.

Yet, I never forget it. It's important to remember that your life and how you touch the lives of others will matter tomorrow, the next week, the next year and, possibly, the next century. Look at all the "Great People" in history. Didn't they influence others or weren't they influenced by others? Without some of that influence, some of them may not have existed. Without their influence, some of us may not have existed or, at least, in the way we do today.

Lastly, even the relatively unknown person, like myself, can make a huge, positive impact in someone's life if we try. The anonymous, seemingly inane person CAN make a positive impact. That's been my sort of standard for a long time - Make a positive impact in other people's lives. If I'm going to be immortal, that's the only way I will achieve it.

One also has to remember that even though one may have the ability to truly make a positive difference, there is an equal ability there to make a negative one. So, I try to be as intentionally positive-forcing as possible.

[BURNY26]

Or you could use the river metaphor as a way to approach things. The Taoist way , follow your own rithm but go with the flow . If there are obstacles you cant breach ,than pass them . Be confident in everything you do ,because in the end we all end up in the ocean

[Barry Ferguson]

Isn't life like a river?

No, it's like a box of chocolates

[Helm]

It's more like a hectic motorway chase with limited fuel.

[Tacitursa]

There's no cancer in rivers though. Interesting, but simplified.

Some rivers have industrial factories pumping toxic waste and pollution into them. And factories are ussualy located in cities or built up areas.

And technically your more likely to get cancer living in a city than you are out in the nice countryside with fresh clean air and organic food from your local farm.

[Ludicus]

I was thinking during my Italian lesson(no I was not paying attention) :

Isn't life like a river?
What do you guys think?

Agreed. And as Heraclitus said, you cannot step into the same river twice.
And, by Francisco Lobo, 17th century, a beatiful poem. He died drowned near Santarém while in voyage to Lisbon by river...

My lovely Tagus, oh, how different
is what I see and saw, you saw and see:
I see you turbid, you see grief in me;
once you ran clear, and once I was content.

Your flow was changed by flood and effluent;
your banks were no sufficient boundary.
My change was caused by that great mystery
in which consists my joy or discontent.

And since we must in grief and sorrow share,
let’s be alike in gladness. Oh, if you
and I could be in all just as before!

But there will come the springtime, fresh and fair;
you’ll be again what once you were, but who
can say if I will be myself once more.

[Innos]

I was thinking during my Italian lesson(no I was not paying attention) :

Isn't life like a river?
You start off from scratch, nothing and move slowly downhill. You are forced to turn according to where your parents think is best for you, as a result from their nature. Then you face numerous rocks and waterfalls, which represent problems growing up. Finally, you have alot of roads in front of you(the river delta). All branches lead to the sea, but which will you take? These are the choices you make in life, and you will eventually reach the end(the sea, death)

What do you guys think?

Interesting view! If the rocks represent problems in life, perhaps the way water is filtered as it passes through the rocks could represent how we overcome problems and sometimes as a result become better human beings because of them. Ie. the water (our lives) is made cleaner by navigating through the rocks (our problems). That's just me thinking out of the box anyway - it makes sense to me, whether it will to anybody else I'm not sure .

[Phier]

No, life is not like a river anymore than life is like a forest, or mountain, or tree, or whatever metaphor you would like to use. It's human imagination, and desire to see cause-and-effect in everything, that gives us these illusions.

Life is like life.

[Ludicus]

Phier wrote:

Life is like life

Very poetic.
No, life is like a river.
(j/k)

...Flowing along just as water does,
Searching for what it means,
It's the way that life goes,
Standing by my River of Dreams

...The gladsome current of our youth,
Ere passion yet disorders,
Steals lingering like a river smooth
Along its grassy borders...

...Oh water rush from tributary,
river of life extroidinary.
Swirling eddy within my brain
swollen river of tear filled rain

.

...Into our lives, storms come and go,
they make the mighty river flow.
In time we'll see the river's end,
the ocean blue around the bend

[Hax]

There's no cancer in rivers though.

Algae.

[Bovril]

The problem of this metaphor is reached at the delta. He the rivr folws in many direction, and the molecule of water invisaged in the mature version of the metaphor must enter one or another. This leaves conspituously open how this 'decision' is made. We are confronted here by the troubling relationship between that which is internal to a person and that which external.

[kesa82]

no, as I have said several times, I don't think time is linear.

[C-Rob]

no, your love is like a river peaceful and deep.

[BURNY26]

no, as I have said several times, I don't think time is linear.

Time isnt linear that is true in my eyes . But the river isnt linear aswell

[maerd2003]

what a cliche..