I have visited many monuments in this world that try to immortalize the cities that erect them in prominent places. Imposing men whose names have already been forgotten but who still pose mounted on their beautiful horses. Women who hold crowns or swords to the sky, symbols of victories that no longer even appear in school books. Solitary, nameless children engraved in stone, their innocence for ever lost during the hours and days they were obliged to pose for some sculptor that history has also forgotten.
And when all is said and done, with very rare exceptions (Rio de Janeiro is one of them with its statue of Christ the Redeemer), it is not the statues that mark the city, but the least expected things. When Eiffel built a steel tower for an exposition, he could not have dreamed that this would end up being the symbol of Paris, despite the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and the impressive gardens. An apple represents New York. A not much visited bridge is the symbol of San Francisco. A bridge over the Tagus is also on the postcards of Lisbon. Barcelona, a city full of unresolved things, has an unfinished cathedral (The Holy Family) as its most emblematic monument. In Moscow, a square surrounded by buildings and a name that no longer represents the present (Red Square, in memory of communism) is the main reference. And so on and so forth.
Perhaps thinking about this, a city decided to create a monument that would never remain the same, one that could disappear every night and re-appear the next morning and would change at each and every moment of the day, depending on the strength of the wind and the rays of the sun. Legend has it that a child had the idea just as he was … taking a pee. When he finished his business, he told his father that the place where they lived would be protected from invaders if it had a sculpture capable of vanishing before they drew near. His father went to talk to the town councilors, who, even though they had adopted Protestantism as the official religion and considered everything that escaped logic as superstition, decided to follow the advice.
Another story tells us that, because a river pouring into a lake produced a very strong current, a hydroelectric dam was built there, but when the workers returned home and closed the valves, the pressure was very strong and the turbines eventually burst. Until an engineer had the idea of putting a fountain on the spot where the excess water could escape.
With the passing of time, engineering solved the problem and the fountain became unnecessary. But perhaps reminded of the legend of the little boy, the inhabitants decided to keep it. The city already had many fountains, and this one would be in the middle of a lake, so what could be done to make it visible?
And that is how the moving monument came to be. Powerful pumps were installed, and today a very strong jet of water spouts 500 liters per second vertically at 200 km per hour. They say, and I have confirmed it, that it can even be seen from a plane flying at 10,000 meters. It has no special name, just “Water Fountain”, the symbol of the city of Geneva (where there is no lack of statues of men on horses, heroic women and solitary children).
Once I asked Denise, a Swiss scientist, what she thought of the Water Fountain.
“Our body is almost completely made of water through which electric discharges pass to convey information. One such piece of information is called Love, and this can interfere in the entire organism. Love changes all the time. I think that the symbol of Geneva is the most beautiful monument to Love yet conceived by any artist.”
I don’t know how the little boy in the legend would feel about it, but I think that Denise is absolutely right.
tags technorati : Technorati Paulo Coelho Paulo Coehlo Warrior of Light Warrior of the Light Newsletter
Hi Paulo,
I’ve been to Geneva during the Summer months, and also gazed upon the fountain a number of times. It really looks majestic, and I feel that this is also due to its simplicity. In a way it is “just water”, and still you can see something different each moment. Even rainbows when sunlight and perspective are right!
I like Denise’s words describing it as “the most beautiful monument to Love yet conceived by any artist”. However the monuments created by Mother Nature herself will always remain unsurpassed – no matter how large or small, yet forever intertwined with everything else. Which includes us human beings and our creations, for better or worse.
Thank you for your inspiring words!
Hi! yagna,
sometime back u spoke of a movie called ‘The Secreat’, i have not got the movie but I got hold of the book and read it. well what do u think about it.
in anyone else has read it or seen it, any comments !!
aditya
adityan, a long time ago you commented the Secret, it was just today 31/8/09 that I read it.
I have some friends involved with metaphysics, they used to say nothing exists. But I touched a table and it was hard, one coul not ignore it. Once a very special person friend of mine told me. It means that nothin tha we can see and touch exits unless first was thought by a human mind. Then that human thought about it. And then talk, or describe the object with words. Little by little that idea becames real. It happens to me in many ocasions and it is absolutely true.
Hi Paulo!
Just wanted you to know that someone in Colorado, USA … loves, loves, loves you! You have given me what others can’t. Your wisdom into this world, it’s mysteries as well as practicalities, has given me strength and endurance to go on to help many others when few can help me. It is an honor to help another attain a miracle and I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but it is lonely. I am certain you know what I mean. I send you the warmest loving hug as well as gratitude for all of your hard work and soul searching you have done and the discipline it took to get it all down on paper so that I may be a part of it. You are so close to me in my soul as it feels to me that our eyes and hearts are on the same path. I have read all your works and can’t wait for another. I will do my part to expand my love even greater, so that maybe you can hear even easier for your next. Thank you for everything.
Forever, Jo Anne
Hi Paulo !
thanks for sharing this beautiful, beautiful what, story ! nah ! anecdote ? …. maybe insight, this beautiful insight.
Geneva and water fountain and love…..hmmmm…. perhaps it has some bearing on geneva being the place for most interbational conventions and treaties !!?!!
freinds I am finally able to access this site once again and am happy to be here with u all !!
Going by Denise’s words, the Water Fountain must be the most curious embodiment of love ever alive… Water is also considered one of the five basis elements that make up a human being in the hindu philosophy, so in that sense too, the fountain can be considered a symbol of something that is sacred and capable of giving birth to life..
talking about statues, I was once given an impromptu elocution topic: ‘Why there are statues of only politicians’.. though i had made up my mind to seak about two unique example which defied the topic, I forgot about those the very moment i began to speak.. here’s a chance to repeat those two:
1) a statue made in the memory of a young village lad, probably a shepherd who gave up his life saving the Maharaja of Vadodara state from a wild beast in Gujarat, India. It still stands in the SayajiRao park and I had remember gaping at the sharp features of the boy with reverence as I was about the same time I visited the park and saw him standing there in the middle of the garden, as if waiting for us to go and talk to him…
2)The other, the statue of the ‘Common Man’ standing in the Symbiosis Institute in Pune, India. the Indian cartoonist R.K Laxman immortalised the commmon man in his caricatures which depict the political and social chaos he takes in his stride daily. The statue at Symbiosis seems to be paying a tribute to the common man, me and others like me, and so I love this statue…
i dream of lands,
i dream of dens,
i dream of monuments.
in the hours
which take flights
across continents
and five oceans
i dream of flowers
and gardens.
in between cities-
towns i dream of home.
home where i live
home where i love,
home where i will.
home where i breath,
home where i still
can be able to dream-
of those cities
and beautiful greens.
I think that monuments are extremely important, and I do think that one day, there shall be a statue of you paulo, perhaps in your home town or a place of admirence, in brannau am inn, lies a small stone slab warning us of the horrors of war, it is a suitable place considering hitler was born there…
wether statues immortalise a moment or the legacy of great men and women I think statues shall always be needed and I think that the historical significance of these monuments shows peoples respect for the past, I know I would like to see more statues of heroes in my local area. We have statues of a man called john laird, he created, most possibly one of the most successful ship factories ever made, and with liverpool being on the coast, that was his base. My grandparents and my parents worked for lairds and even though it is now shut down, the one building that dominates the skyline of my home town if the massive ship yard were my family had worked on merchant ships, battle ships and even nuclear submarines, it is a monument to the achievments of a great man.