Is Our Cup Half Full or Half Empty?

The semester is halfway over … or is it only halfway begun? 

It has been six weeks and I have thoroughly enjoyed this course thus far.  I didn’t know what to expect when it was announced that it would be focused on water and to be honest I was a little skeptical.  How could a literature and civilization course incorporate the theme of water and would it still be interesting?  Personally, I have found the approaches to water through literature have been very intriguing and enjoyable.  Except for Huck Finn…I thought I had left that novel behind me in high school and I was not extremely excited to find out I would have to force my through it again.  I did find The Big Thirst and A River Runs Through It quite interesting, however, and they provided two very different approaches to water that I enjoyed equally.  The Big Thirst presented a bounty of information on the water crisis that I was previously unaware of and quite a few different attitudes regarding humans’ relationship with water.  I completely agreed with Fishman’s idea that water is invisible to us because we are too accustomed to its availability and “freeness” and we therefore take advantage of it.  Another point he made that really opened my eyes about the water crisis is how every water crisis is a local problem and nothing we do here in Texas will help those in India with no access to clean water.  This makes the water crisis much more personal and emphasizes how important it is for communities to focus on working together to fight the drought.  A River Runs Through It focused more on the deeper significance of water in a family’s life and its representation of relationships and responsibilities.  The Blackfoot River fosters the Maclean brother’s youth and is also holds significant meaning as it is the last place the brothers fish together before Paul Maclean’s death.  This film was a nice break from the facts and horrors presented in The Big Thirst regarding the water crisis and I enjoyed taking a more literary and abstract approach to the significance of water.

As we complete the first half of the semester, I can only look forward to what the second half has in store for us.  I can’t wait to experience the Trinity River on another level (literally) when we bike along its trail and I am interested to see how the second film we watch incorporates water and its significance.  I am excited to see how else we can analyze and interpret water and its significance in literature and in civilization and if these first six weeks were any indication of how the last six will be, I’d have to say our cup is half full and we have only just begun this journey with water.