On The Concord River

What is it about rivers? They pull us in and push us along. Sometimes, a river will sweep us away, but I think that is only because they get excited when we accept their invitation. Funny, I live right near a famous river, the Niagara. I have swam in it, boated on it, walked along it and have been hypnotized by it. Meg and I love to drive along the Niagara from Fort Erie to Niagara on the Lake. Such a slow and pretty drive.

Still, I don't feel the warm attachment to this river that I do for the Concord River in Massachusetts. The Niagara is a powerful god , a Poseidon the earth shaker, a ribbon of fear that sweeps toward oblivion at Niagara Falls. If the Niagara is time then the Falls are the fearful Apocalypse that lurks in the darker pages of the Bible.

The Concord is the river of peace. I prefer its Indian name, the Musketaquid or river of grassy banks. This river moves so slowly that Nathaniel Hawthorne, an avid boater, was never sure of the direction of its current when he lived up at Emerson's Old Manse.

I have walked and paddled on the Concord many times. It is never a fearful place, even when I was caught in a rainstorm a few years ago. The trees and bridges seem to spring up when shelter is required. The gentle river is always inviting and protective.

As I floated down the Concord with Meg and Nora just two weeks ago, I couldn't help but recall my secret image of this river as time. In fact, the Concord is timeless. We floated past 18th Century farm houses. I could clearly feel and see Emerson walking along the banks with Henry Thoreau. Their poetry was written on these waters. Geese still jet over our heads while frogs sit meditating on logs.

Back on land, time seems like a straight line as we mark off the days, months and years. But while we are carried along by this mystic water, time has no meaning. The Native peoples still make treaties near Egg Rock, while up ahead, stout Concord farmers trade their plows for muskets. The transcendentalists learn to see heaven on earth, and I float along through all of it in the company of those I love the most. Here there is no time only shared experience and visible manifestations of wonder.