Water carries metaphorical connotations very different from those of fire. Water denies linearity: cycling endlessly, it is also the agent of nature’s cycles, nourishing both growth and decay. Similarly, it resists separation: named the “universal solvent”, it tends away from purity to partake of its environment. Water is also the nemesis of control. Seeking out the tiniest crack, nothing can hold it in. As waves in the ocean, it destroys any bulwark. Whereas fire burns clean and purifies what it touches, water makes a mess. Hence the key to preserving anything—houses, books, food, clothes, metal—is to keep it dry.

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• #ascent-of-humanity (See: @The Ascent of Humanity)