Water

This first time i read through the 'water essay' in Short Takes I have to admit i was a little confused. Okay, she has these really vivid memory from when she was a kid. Cool. So, what does it mean?
When Landon, Megan and I unpacked the extremely short essay during class we noticed some things i would have probably not picked up on on my own. For instance, we got stuck on the line "artist unglued on a scrap of glued wood." Not only is this beautifully poetic and fun to say, but, it's almost a paradox in itself. The boy riding the raging current is called an artist because why? I think it's because he was the only one brave enough to attempt to surf the water. The author even says, a few lines later, how they all wanted to be him. Everyone in some way or another wishes to be an artist. I don't mean this in a literal sense. I just think everyone wants to be original. I mean, no one looks at themselves in the mirror and says 'good i will not be noticed for a single thing today.' Wow, talk about digressing. Anyway, this artist is unglued on glued wood. He is crazy for trying to surf the wave, and yet, it's not that crazy of an idea really. It seems doable. I think this line can be analogous to a writers dream of being published. It's crazy and we all at one point in our lives think we are complete idiots for doing it, but we still try.
If i were to take the entire meaning of the essay in the way that i like to look at that line however, it would be very depressing. I think the intending meaning of the work as a whole is to symbolize youth to the flow of a river. Water, like time, is constantly moving and rushing past. Time doesn't care who it leaves in its wake or who doesn't make it.
The style of the piece helps to define the meaning of it. The beginning is composed of very short choppy sentences that are pretty constant in form. Then, the body of the piece contains long run-on-esk sentences that fuel the story forward. The end reverts back to the short chop language used in the beginning. It's like childhood. There is the beginning, which none of us really remember and is pretty simple. Then there is the growing up part. Which, for the most part, sucks and is really confusing and difficult. Then it ends--super quick, almost like it never started.
I have a hard time with the ending. Is he dead? Or will he collect the shards of his torn red shirt and start laughing? I want to know, but at the same time i don't think it matters. The piece is all about the parts when life and time is moving. Not when it's stilled. The writers offers no internal dialogue after the boy runs into the wall and the water rushes past him. It's just over. The story, and the moment. I think it adds more than it detracts from the story because it follows the short story with a short abrupt ending. I have whiplash. I think I'm supposed to though. Someone once told me (this was in reference to music) "everything you need to hear is in the reverb of the strings." I want to apply that notion here. Everything that is important is in what is not said or known. Like life.