In My Own Voice. Reading from My Collected Works – On Water: In My Own Voice. Reading from My Collected Works, #3

By Jeffrey Lant

I was moved to write this book after I saw a picture of one of the greatest rivers on Earth, the Colorado, It is a picture of water removed, thus life removed. It is the Colorado River, no longer God’s splendid creation, but merely a rocky water pipe, nothing but a riverbed. There are a hundred such miles at the end of the Colorado system, a hundred miles of the 1,450 mile waterway now has only the slightest memory of water, much less powerful water on a race to the great Pacific.

And you think, “Where did that massive river go?” How could they there be up to a hundred feet deep, whilst here retain nothing but the memory of a majestic presence, majestic no longer, just thought-provoking, and even frightening.

For we know if the giant river can lose a hundred miles, it can lose a hundred more. And if the water level has dropped and dropped again, why so it can drop yet again and more.

This book is the story of water. It is the culmination of many streams of thought and information. My mother, for example, contributed the thought that one must write about big issues, issues which cannot be solved in a hour or day, but need a lifetime’s commitment. She would have been proud that I tackle, on so many occasions, the issue that is water.

My father contributed a joyous obsession with America’s national parks, particularly the Grand Canyon. I was a teenager at the scoffing age when my father insisted we live up to Horace Greeley’s famous line “Go West young man, go West.” And so we did, to marvel as all marvel who approach this sinuous deity, for we know we could not have created such a spectacle ourselves. We needed massive assistance from a greater being, who gave it freely.

I thank my brother, age 8 or so, for his assistance in gathering Illinois Maple seeds. We threw these tiny helicopters with abandon over the sides of the Canyon, only to discover its many ridges and ledges blocked their descent.

I added my two cents too, by studying the mudflats where once the full panoply of water possibilities fertilized the landscape, now moribund.

It might have been as notable as Egypt’s Nile based civilization. Civilization came to Egypt via the Nile. By contrast, civilization failed to reach the mudflats at the end of the Colorado because there was no water running there, and so there was no Valley of the Kings, no water-borne Pharaohs, nothing of greatness, except a clear understanding of the great loss that took place when water departed. Sadly, most people still do not understand the loss or its magnitude, but it affects them every single day.

In this book, I take up five water based stories. What they have in common is that each features a way that water may be presented and used, so that future generations will have less to blame us about.

I give you five views of water, shared with readings made especially to go along with this volume the third in my series "In My Own Voice.  Reading from My Collected Works"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeffrey Lant
• Release date: Aug 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536589313

Jeffrey Lant

Dr. Jeffrey Lant is known worldwide. He started in the media business when he was 5 years old, a Kindergartner in Downers Grove, Illinois, publishing his first newspaper article. Since then Dr. Lant has earned four university degrees, including the PhD from Harvard. He has taught at over 40 colleges and universities and is quite possibly the first to offer satellite courses. He has written over 50 books, thousands of articles and been a welcome guest on hundreds of radio and television programs. He has founded several successful corporations and businesses including his latest at …writerssecrets.com His memoirs “A Connoisseur’s Journey” has garnered nine literary prizes that ensure its classic status. Its subtitle is “Being the artful memoirs of a man of wit, discernment, pluck, and joy.” A good read by this man of so many letters. Such a man can offer you thousands of insights into the business of becoming a successful writer. Be sure to sign up now at www.writerssecrets.co

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

https://youtu.be/L3ZaUf6g4Q4

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C:\Users\Pat\Downloads\Introduction(1).jpg

Reading by Dr. Jeffrey Lant at: https://youtu.be/L3ZaUf6g4Q4

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Here is the preface to our introduction, Water Music (1717), composed by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). Sadly, a great percentage of Earth’s population can derive no happiness from Water Music, for their water resources are dwindling or are already gone, as you see from the following story. Thus, there can be no Water Music when there is no water.

This picture tells more than a mere thousand words. In fact, it is the clear summation of a process in which we are all caught up whether we think about it or not; whether we do anything about it or not. It involves one of the greatest rivers on Earth, the Colorado, and should you have tears, this is the place to shed them.

Millions of people approach the Colorado and its Grand Canyon with a sentiment that is little short of awe. Whether you stand at the rim and look everywhere around you, or, being a bit more adventurous, descend to dip your hand in this surging water, you feel the presence not just of Nature, but of Nature’s God. No one who approaches this river of power and primordial grace, from whatever direction, and in whatever way, comes away untouched.

But there is a stronger picture that overawes the massive canyon and swift fleeting river, and that is the picture of the river not there, and this picture does not merely awe us all, but frightens us if we have a lick of sense. It is a picture of water removed, thus life removed. It is the Colorado River, no longer God’s splendid creation, but merely a rocky water pipe.

You’ll see in this picture nothing but a riverbed. There are a hundred such miles at the end of the Colorado system... over a hundred miles of dust, dirt, rock, and an eerie feeling that God once passed this way, created its waters, and left them in our hands with what results you easily see. A hundred miles of the 1,450 mile waterway now has only the slightest memory of water, much less powerful water on a race to the great Pacific.

And you think, Where did that massive river go?; where are the waters that leapt high and shimmered in the sunlight? How could they there be up to a hundred feet deep, whilst here retain nothing but the memory of a majestic presence, majestic no longer, just thought-provoking, and even frightening.

For we know if the giant river can lose a hundred miles, it can lose a hundred more. And if the water level has dropped and dropped again, why so it can drop yet again and more.

This book is the story of water. It is the culmination of many streams of thought and information. My mother, for example, contributed the thought that one must write about big issues, issues which cannot be solved in a hour or day, but need a lifetime’s commitment. She would have been proud that I tackle, on so many occasions, the issue that is water.

My father contributed a joyous obsession with America’s national parks, particularly the Grand Canyon. I was a teenager at the scoffing age when my father insisted we live up to Horace Greeley’s famous line Go West young man, go West. And so we did, to marvel as all marvel who approach this sinuous deity, for we know we could not have created such a spectacle ourselves. We needed massive assistance