Water

"The water has memory, you see, the water has memory."

When a man who has spent his life on the ocean speaks poetically of water, I will give him his due consideration.

Sitting in a hot pot at the Vesturbæjarlaug Thermal pool, sharing water with a retired trawler captain, a Spaniard, and an elderly woman, the conversation was as warm as we were. It was another unseasonably fine October day in Reykjavík and I was taking a final visit to the neighborhood pool. The conversation swirled like the water in which we soaked; moving between politics, economics, wool, music and water. Always water, this rock in the North Atlantic, surrounded by water and the fish in it which generated wealth, the heat from the geothermal water making living comfortable here, and the electricity generated from the hydroelectric plants making modern life practical. I mentioned Halldór Laxness and his novel Kristnihald undir Jökli, wherein the "fallen" pastor Jón Primus declared his only theory: "...water is good...one doesn't even have to go by my theory unless one is thirsty." Everybody laughed. Water is good, especially when one is in it with congenial company. When I had finally become thoroughly cooked I reluctantly left.

Two days later, when the weather had turned colder, it was time for me to return to my home in Minnesota where my "real" life awaited. I showered, smiling at the faint odor of sulfur from the hot water—after only a week I was beginning to take it for granted. I dressed and gathered my bags and headed out, walking along Tjarnargata, past Tjörnin. The pond had frozen over during the night and a few brave souls were waltzing over the thin ice. Most of the birds were congregating down by the pond’s southern end where some water was still open. Geese flew in formation overhead and, as I walked the paths at the end of the pond, I turned and looked back, slowly scanning this beautiful city.

Suddenly, there was more water, but this time salty. I turned away and headed up the hill to the bus depot. I didn't look back again.