Brown Gods

"I was grateful for her company, even though my river was too brown for her liking. 'You can imagine all that's been dumped into it'" (Nooteboom 32).

"I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river is a strong brown god . . . reminder of what men choose to forget" (Eliot 35).

Initially I did not understand why (aside from geographical reasons) the river was a strong brown god. Yes, waters are strong; waters are god-like and extremely powerful in the form of a river; but why brown? Like I said, I realize rivers are muddied from the earth. But I like this new way of looking at a river as the gauge of how well one has muddied one's own life. It's good to get dirty.