July 11, 2008 - Marching Backwards

Canon 5D, 24 - 105 mm f/4L IS @ 28 mm, f/8, 1/40 sec., ISO 400

Most people, I think, understand that waterfalls constantly recede. As soon as they are created, the erosive force of water and silt begins to eat away at the very structure that defines them. The brink of Niagara Falls today, for example, is no where near where it was when it started thousands of years ago. All waterfalls, in effect, "march backwards" and eventually disappear completely. "Progress" is measured not by what has been gained, but by what has been lost. Waterfalls are perhaps nature's best illustration of entropy at work. I think that may be why we are drawn to them. In many ways, we are very much like them. It's what we've lost that defines us, not what we've gained.