Water on a Rock is a place where I collect and define my thoughts on philosophy, politics and life. As with everything in life, it is an ongoing process, an evolution that will be at times contradictory and which will take many twists and turns, including some dead ends and flaws. While the hope is to some degree help counter some negative and even dangerous developments in society, it is also very much about I myself finding my own path, outside of the constraints of set philosophies and religions. And yes, it is pretentious. And I think more people should be.
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Water on a Rock takes its name from a Talmud story about Rabbi Akiba which goes as follows.
He became thirsty and went to his favorite brook in the hills, to take a drink. As he was drawing the crystal clear water in his palm and putting it to his mouth, something caught his eye.
He saw drops of water falling on a huge stone – drip, drop – and directly where the drops were falling, there was a deep hole in the stone. Akiba was fascinated. He gazed at the drops, and at the stone.
“What mighty power there is in a drop of water, the shepherd thought.” “Could my stony heart ever be softened up that way?”
– About Rabbi Akiba, from D’Rabbi Natan, retold by Nissan Mindel
The story is about slow change, as a person, but can also be applied to society at large, where small changes over time lead to dramatic effects, a truth in which there is both great hope and reason for fear.
