The Mystic River in Massachusetts

Why mystic, why river?

Mystic from the Wampanoag Indian name of the river, Muhs-whtug, or big river, 7 miles long, head to toe (where is the head? The toe is the Atlantic Ocean.) Or from the Algonquin Indian name Missi-tuk, great river driven by waves.

Mystic because it is old, predates Indians, a gift of the glacier perhaps.

Mystic because as Ernesto Cardenale wrote, our lives are rivers, running to empty, into the ocean, which is death.

River because it is a snake, ingesting feeble waters at its slivery head, disgorging them and many more, including filth, into the ocean. Clean out that filth!

River because it is respite from the often-anguishing distraction of living in the city, filled with millions of people, endless traffic, obnoxious noise, and perpetual busyness, a civilization hurtling toward oblivion.

River because it gives us vision—cleaned, ever flowing, enlivened and enlivening.

photos by skip schiel & teeksa photography

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