Everything Flows Downstream

Image: New River Gorge NP, Endless Wall Trail

 Last night, on a rare kidless weekend, Kraig and I seized the opportunity to attend a film festival I had heard about that was happening in Chattanooga, the Lookout Wild Film Festival. It was absolutely an incredible night of films, both shorts and the feature length ("River Runner"). 

We saw these films:

• Our Theory of Human Motivation  (3)

• Homeland –  Undiscovered Trails Of The Kackar Mountains (4)

• Camp Yoshi (10) 

• Kyra: An Olympic Story  (8)

• The Wanderlust Women (8)

• Latitude (9)

• The Outlaw Sport (8)

• Spirit of the Peaks  (42)

• Katie (10) 

• The River Runner  (86)

I absolutely loved "Our Theory of Human Motivation", "Camp Yoshi", and "Katie". In one of them (possibly "Spirit of the Peaks"), the statement was made that "everything flows downstream". It was referencing water sources and pure water and the fact that the snowmelt is what provides water for those downstream and that we don't think about even the smallest ways that we pollute such as the wax from snowboards, and so on. But the minute it was said, it struck me.

Everything flows downstream.

Everything we do has repercussions "downstream". Everything we say, every action we take, every decision we make. It is all going to impact other people in some way, and it's also going to impact us in the future. We may not see the immediate consequence or benefit (because this doesn't have to just consider the negative side), but it will show up eventually.

What are we putting in the water today, in the world and in our lives, that's going to impact us in the future? Are we taking care of our business, are we making positive choices, are we considering the other people around us? Or are we dumping our trash, making rash choices without considering the future, polluting the lives of those around us? Do we make things better for our future selves and those who are impacted by us, or do we make them worse?

It's an image that is going to stay with me for a while, I feel certain. I plan to ask myself regularly if this is something I want to see later, if "downstream" for this situation or decision or action will look favorable or unfavorable.