Everyone Is Destined To Meet Death

Reading “Memory of Water” instilled different emotions in me. While I got really happy when Noria became the tea master, I also felt extreme sorrow on her father’s death who meant a world to Noria. She was left alone in the funeral among strangers and the only person to blame is her mother who should not have left her alone in the first place. For some time, I forgot about the issue of water shortage in Noria’s world and my only concern was how she would deal with such a situation all by herself.

The first few lines of chapter 9 on page # 113 really struck me which says “Most of the soil we walk on once grew and breathed, and once it had the shape of the living, long ago. One day someone who doesn’t remember us will walk on our skin and flesh and bones, on the dust that remains of us. The only thing that separates us from dust is water, and water cannot be held in one place. It will slip through our fingers and through our pores and through our bodies, and the more shriveled we become; the more anxious it is to leave us. When the water runs dry, we are of earth alone.”

I don’t usually think about death because it’s nerve-racking to me and the idea of not being present in this world terrifies me although I know everyone has to die eventually but in this chapter Itaranta talks about death in a very beautiful way and explains our relation to dust and water. Based on the teachings of various Holy books, our skin is composed of dust and this composition of dust becomes a living creature when blood, a form of water, combines with it. As we age, the water content of our ligaments and tendons decreases which results in weakness and ultimately death. I think this is what Itaranta means when she says water slips through our fingers and pores until we become shriveled, wrinkly and dead. When the dead ones are buried, they become a part of earth and gradually lose the remaining moisture from their bodies and once again, turn into lifeless dust. Just the idea of stepping on a dead person’s remains and someone stepping on my remains after my death freaks me out but Itaranta has put this in such a beautiful and lyrical way that it does not sound as eerie as it should.