Welcome to The Essence of Water. I’m Peter Freilinger, the site administrator. But this isn’t “my” site; this is a collective effort, and I’m joined by Vero Rousseau, Mark Hannam, and Matt Boutte. For over five years, we’ve been writing essays on what used to be called “moral philosophy” (among other musings on art, urban design, the natural world, and our various hangups in life). We hope to explore the human experience – in our selves, in society, in the physical world – thoughtfully and openly. We’re here to reveal ourselves as part of that exploration, to participate in a kind of transparency that requires personal commitment. We each own our individual work, however; there is no editing process beyond an ongoing discussion regarding the Oxford comma, and a heated debate as to whether one or two spaces after a period is appropriate.
Here are our latest essays:
Our sense of place and our existence in space is a vital and recognised part of our identity as writers – Canada, London, Texas, Maine, nowhere and anywhere. We’re linked by a shared sense of wonder of the world, and a shared sense that the world seems unaware of its own wonder. We are not going to solve anything, and most of the essays here have no end point, no punchline. We, and our writings, are all works in progress – and hopefully you, the reader, see your own life as a work in progress and are similarly trying to engage in the process of being human yourselves as a thoughtful and ongoing project.
Doing this well requires reading a lot: on our own, of course, but also as a group. We welcome you to keep track of what we’ve jointly read to date, on our Book Club page. Every two weeks, one of us chooses a work of philosophy – not too long, as we all have plenty of other things on our mind – and then come together virtually for a couple hours of discussion over, depending on the time zone, coffee, tea, or a beer or gin and tonic.
To be clear: we are not seeking merely to convince ourselves of own wisdom; quite the contrary. We are keen to listen to others who share the same interest in the experience of being human in an objectively non-human world. It’s always a pleasure to have other authors and commenters add to the flow – so read carefully and enjoy a range of writers, and add your thoughts to the Comments section at the end of each essay. We all think about the same things, but we don’t think about them in the same way at all. Challenge us to think differently.
And as always, thanks for reading….