Steam

It is possible one is more familiar with inculcations concerning certain realities rather than the realities themselves. It is also possible one is more familiar with contrived expressions and metaphors than the reality the metaphors describe. Most English-speakers know something of the phrase “to let off steam”, which has nothing to do with steam and everything to do with a rhetorical contortion meant to façade anger and justify ranting. In all fairness, there may indeed be a few micro-droplets of sweat that atomize or evaporate during a particularly vicious bout of rage and a small amount of ‘steam’ is produced, which is perhaps where the phrase comes from; more than likely, however, the etymological origin of the phrase has something to do with a pressure cooker, which, after it has been antagonized by the perpetual heat from below and can stand no more, it lets out a shriek that will make a young boy think his aunt’s untiring labor to produce invariably scrumptious meals has finally driven her mad. Nonetheless, steam has driven a lot of what society has come to rely on as modern technology without many realizing it. Not just the steam engine, although this was important, but most power plants that – at least the ones that do not use hydroelectric potential or wind turbines, which is over 90% - at some point use steam to spin the turbines to generate electricity, be it a coal plant, a nuclear power plant, or biomass plant. We rely on water in all of its forms, more than we know and more than we tend to admit. Remove fresh water (and by removing Lake Baikal in Russia this would eliminate over 50% of liquid fresh water on the planet) and things go south fast, not just in the spin cycle, but in Kreb’s cycle and the, well, water cycle too; not to mention the cycle…I mean, circle, of life (cue Lion King theme song). Remove ice and the planet’s built-in air-conditioning unit shuts down with the polar ice caps gone – no drink on the rocks would be the least of one’s worries. But remove steam and not only are we plunged into the dark ages again, almost literally, but we also have no clouds and the vicious cycle of no water is accelerated. The same could be said of us, that is, we often reduce ourselves to body, or mind, or soul/spirit without seeing the integrated whole and that each part is uniquely necessary and important. It’s almost as if, through nature and our very selves, we were meant to see we bear the image of three in one. Although, I do think any analogy that seeks to reduce the description of the trinity into a neatly proscribed category is at best misleading, and and worst heresy.