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The River Always Wins: Water as a Metaphor for Hope and Progress
A meditation on movement of both society and nature, based on the author’s experiences as an activist. In short, aphoristic chapters, Marquis explores the power of force and collectivity through the metaphor of water. As an activist, David Marquis founded the Oak Cliff Nature Preserve in Dallas, and has consulted with the Texas Conservation Alliance since 2011. He brings an unerring belief in the connective and healing power of nature to The River Always Wins .
" The River Always Wins is an arts-based project―book, music, video, stage, audio book, and visual―designed to inspire people to come together to create positive, lasting social change."
―David Marquis
" The River Always Wins is an arts-based project―book, music, video, stage, audio book, and visual―designed to inspire people to come together to create positive, lasting social change."
―David Marquis
128 pages, Paperback
First published August 4, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 19, 2021
Water is a metaphor for life is the theme of this book, which I would describe as more of a lyrical compilation of observations and analogies.
Water is essential to life – some 60% of the average person’s body is water. However, I have difficulty with the personification of water in this book. If the drops could communicate, no doubt they would each have their own narrative, not unlike the fact that two snowflakes are never exactly the same. Water is an inert substance that responds to the forces of gravity and tides. When it reaches a critical mass, it becomes a river, and shapes the rock by wearing it down over eons. In another sense, the cohesion of droplets and the movement that result when the droplets coalesce into a river is an apt choice by the author for describing movements in society – Civil Rights, Environmentalism, Suffrage, etc.
There are some excellent insights into droughts, floods, rapids and estuaries where the river does “win” because it is not responsive to the human condition but to the forces of nature.
If the river is indeed a metaphor for life, when the river runs into the “Greater Water” it dies, as do we, when we come to the end. Similarly, it is not inevitable that the river always wins when man pollutes it, changes its course, dams it, drains it. Climate change can alter the water’s acidity and eliminate most life within it. To quote Marquis: “If the ocean dies, we die. Our journey ends.”
In conclusion, I found the book to be most valuable in stimulating my mind to think about how water and life are connected, as are all the peoples of the world.
Water is essential to life – some 60% of the average person’s body is water. However, I have difficulty with the personification of water in this book. If the drops could communicate, no doubt they would each have their own narrative, not unlike the fact that two snowflakes are never exactly the same. Water is an inert substance that responds to the forces of gravity and tides. When it reaches a critical mass, it becomes a river, and shapes the rock by wearing it down over eons. In another sense, the cohesion of droplets and the movement that result when the droplets coalesce into a river is an apt choice by the author for describing movements in society – Civil Rights, Environmentalism, Suffrage, etc.
There are some excellent insights into droughts, floods, rapids and estuaries where the river does “win” because it is not responsive to the human condition but to the forces of nature.
If the river is indeed a metaphor for life, when the river runs into the “Greater Water” it dies, as do we, when we come to the end. Similarly, it is not inevitable that the river always wins when man pollutes it, changes its course, dams it, drains it. Climate change can alter the water’s acidity and eliminate most life within it. To quote Marquis: “If the ocean dies, we die. Our journey ends.”
In conclusion, I found the book to be most valuable in stimulating my mind to think about how water and life are connected, as are all the peoples of the world.
September 5, 2022
I got this book as a gift from a colleague, and it really does function as a lovely gift. The writing is beautiful, tranquil, and thoughtful. I enjoyed it purely as a piece of poetry.
I was mildly distracted the whole time because I feel like the nature of progress in the modern day runs on a much faster timescale than what nature would allow. This is briefly touched on in the book, but I felt that this book was trying to teach me patience and determination, when in reality, we may need more countercurrents and large shifts to accomplish what we need to do for our world. It also implied to a certain extent that the drops of the river are shifting in the direction of progress - that might not necessarily be the case (for example, take a river that's polluted - it's moving in the direction of harming the ocean once it reaches there). It also draws quite a good-bad binary between the water flowing of progress and the rocks that slow it down. It is one thing to assert so strongly the good-bad binary (I suppose the author must be a moral realist), but it also prompts the question of whether the flowing is always good and the rocks always the bad. I wish he complexified the flowing water metaphor, to note that drops may travel along many different paths or bodies and still be reaching common goals - not everyone agrees on the best way to progress.
Overall, beautiful writing, wish that the metaphor was expanded on in different ways.
I was mildly distracted the whole time because I feel like the nature of progress in the modern day runs on a much faster timescale than what nature would allow. This is briefly touched on in the book, but I felt that this book was trying to teach me patience and determination, when in reality, we may need more countercurrents and large shifts to accomplish what we need to do for our world. It also implied to a certain extent that the drops of the river are shifting in the direction of progress - that might not necessarily be the case (for example, take a river that's polluted - it's moving in the direction of harming the ocean once it reaches there). It also draws quite a good-bad binary between the water flowing of progress and the rocks that slow it down. It is one thing to assert so strongly the good-bad binary (I suppose the author must be a moral realist), but it also prompts the question of whether the flowing is always good and the rocks always the bad. I wish he complexified the flowing water metaphor, to note that drops may travel along many different paths or bodies and still be reaching common goals - not everyone agrees on the best way to progress.
Overall, beautiful writing, wish that the metaphor was expanded on in different ways.
April 5, 2021
It is magical how the smallest packages can provide the largest surprises. Writing about water in the West will always have relevancy, but this is so much more than a simple nature narrative. On the surface this lyrical and contemplative essay is about the movement of water and rivers transforms and changes the earth, but it is also a hope filled meditation on the human spirit and social movements. Explorations of all aspects of water are skillfully intertwined with history and human nature to provide a compelling metaphor for transformation and change. As an inspirational call to action, our hope is renewed with a beautiful reminder about the power of time and persistence alongside the potential both the individual and the collective have for creating social change. The brevity and poetry I discovered with this book will draw me back again and again when I am in need of encouragement and reassurance.
October 22, 2020
At times I got lost in the metaphor and imagery of the essay. But at the same time, it was beauitful and taught me a lot of truths that feel life changing.
July 24, 2021
What a beautiful book. No other words. Beautiful writing, lovely message, thought provoking, short and sweet and yet so much depth.
October 11, 2021
lovely
July 4, 2023
i enjoy !
October 19, 2023
I wouldn't recommend it but it isn't offensively bad. The dude clearly thinks he has a point to make but it isn't really there and the philosophy of the book is inconsistent
December 31, 2022
I expected to come away from this with a bit of light uplift, drawing from the metaphorical tradition of water-as-persistence; I did *not* expect to ponder the multifaceted ways that water wends through our lives, and see how it applies to lessons in power, resilience, and patience. It was much more than i expected, and really gave me a multi-faceted appreciation for the lessons that are literally right in front of us, should we be inclined to pay attention to our world. It was a timely lesson sorely needed. And as one that is spare, wasting no time on extravagance or over-writing, the lesson is that much more powerful.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews