Water Potpourri is the fifth in a series of essays on the Spirit of Water by the Water Stewards II. Published in the Marquette Monthly January, 2025.
– Ken Kelley
This Inter Faith Water Stewards program, now in the fifth and sixth years, has heightened and newly informed my understanding of the sustaining role water plays for all of life. I am sensitized to the availability, the quality, the absence, the poisoning and often the political turmoil affecting water issues.
I am a longtime devotee of the Cedar Tree Institute and the worthy projects promoting ecology, mental health, and spirituality. That being said, this project has inspired us to greater involvement on behalf of water. How might we be better Water Stewards, I ask?
I would like to be permitted the liberty of giving “Cult” a friendlier meaning for the purpose of this article. Going back to ancient Greece or Rome, to participate in the cult was to offer care for the gods. Our cult of water reflects this original meaning, where we share in the outward practice of protecting and preserving our precious waters.
Personally, my support comes, also, from a different direction, I am OLD. This affords me a reservoir of memory regarding water that occurs over my almost 90 years. The following stories are snippets of that experience.
In the mid 1940’s, as a boy of nine or 10, I was allowed to wander around town (Pontiac, Mi.) unescorted. My wandering often took me to a stretch of the Clinton River where I would wile away hours. I would roam up and down the crystal-clear river collecting crawdads, frogs, turtles or skipping stones. My imagination was my only roadmap. What delight!
Directly across the street from my favorite spot on the river was an old-fashioned icehouse. A big old warehouse that used water to make ice, 50 lb. blocks for our ice boxes. That was our only refrigeration and it worked quite well. The ice was delivered right to our homes and we kids would follow the ice truck and pick off icicles – the popsicles of the day.
The next event that really attracted my attention occurred in the Australian Outback This was a post retirement honeymoon of sorts, a trip that involved travel to New Zealand, Australia, and the Cook Islands. The time spent in Australia was largely in the Outback. We saw red clay, treeless landscape for mile after mile. It was what I had come to expect.
A special hiking opportunity was available early one morning. The hike took us to a special place in King Valley, a region with a mostly naked landscape, but with some sparse vegetation this time.
The hike leader was a young, petite Aboriginal woman, a certified park ranger. She led us eventually to what I regarded as a miracle. A genuine desert oasis! We came over a rise and suddenly viewed a beautiful blue pond surrounded by lush vegetation. Bird life and small critters immediately came into view. No doubt all species of wildlife were frequent visitors to that location. It was as if we were viewing a Disney Fantasy movie.
Equally surprising was an experience in my ‘60’s living on the shore of Lake Superior. The fascination with that pristine body of water had led me to believe we would have wonderful drinking water in unlimited supply. WRONG! We had a 100-foot-deep well that produced less than a gallon a minute, frequently ran dry, and gave us undrinkable water the color of root beer.
We managed by pulling lake water for household use and buying drinking water. Again, go Figure!
As a youngster growing up in Oakland County Michigan I was surrounded by water, big and small lakes, big rivers fed by tributaries, here and there small streams seeming to go who knows where. Oakland County was literally a “Land of Lakes”. Every farm had its own pond on the back 40 and we kids had secret gravel pits for “skinny dipping”. As nice as this sounds and is, we took it for granted, no real appreciation for those gifts.
Later, as a retired more responsible adult I lived for 16 or 17 years in the Sonoran Desert. Rather than abundance there existed an eerie scarcity of water. Dry river beds i.e. the Santa Cruz, and Salt River that saw water only during Monsoon season, then often, dangerously flooded.
Such extremes as these two examples exist worldwide and demand conscientious attention on a larger scale.
In conclusion, my remanences make clear that we touch and are connected to water at many stages of our lives. The question is, how might you participate in this cult of water, protecting, preserving, and caring for this fragile resource?
– Ken Kelley
Ken, originally from Pontiac, Michigan is a retired NMU Social Work Faculty. His social work career began in 1958 in Detroit’s inner city which led to a faculty appointment with Wayne State University’s graduate School of School of Social Work. Joining the NMU faculty in 1975, he retired in 1997. Early retirement spent traveling and living part time in Tucson, Arizona. Ken enjoys the outdoors, working wood projects and writing, as self-help measures.
