The Great and Wide River

When water first formed and flowed across the earth, there began a path made of a tiny and consistent drips that began to find a way down a hill and puddle in a leveled hollow.  As time inched on, the drips became greater, the path became wider, and the puddle spilled over and met the puddle that had formed below it.  Soon, they grew together and thickened, etching a way down the mountain, finding the easiest path to the bottom.

As the eons passed, the trickle became a stream, then a river, wide and deep and living.  The Living River made of a million trickles, of a billion drops, made its way to the sea.

On either side of the Living River were two peoples.  On one side were the Yutes and on the other, the Emes.  Neither ever took their eyes off the other, and even during relatively quiet periods of peace, they always held their rocks in hand, ready.  Every once in a while, they would face off, and with the Living River between them, would yell and throw stones at each other.  As the great, uneasy numbers would swell, the crowds would press against the shore, and the usual shouting would change to threats and curses and screams.  Suddenly, one voice from each side of the river would rise above all others and shrill, “The Living River must change, it must change, it must change… and only I can make it do so.”   Of these two, one silenced the other, and the masses pushed the loudest screamer into the vast, wide and wild Living River.  There was a horrific splash, and then, the multitude would sneer and scoff and turn away from the water.  The Living River would continue its course.   

This went on, back and forth, forth and back, until, once in a very long and simmering while, the Yutes and the Emes would became so angry with the Living River, that they stopped yelling at each other and cursed the water itself.  On these rare days, the masses attacked the river and rushed into the violent waters.  As the people trampled one another and crawled over each other, many drowned.  The dead bodies drifted with the current, some catching on brambles and stones, damming the river in parts.  And for a time, the river flowed around the obstructions and found new ways around the hitches, and for a long while, the people believed the Living River had changed.   

As time finds its way and as the dead, bloated bodies dislodged and washed away, the Yutes and Emes forgot the rage they had harbored towards the Living River.  They felt the stones they still held in their hands and paced the shore uneasily.  They waved their arms and screamed until one voice on either side rose above the others...