The Water Wheel

A short while ago, I saw a fountain with a water wheel. When the fountain was filled with water, the wheel could be set into motion. After the initial push to start the wheel going, the wheel was powered by the water itself, carrying the water from the bottom of the fountain, to the top, where it would fall down a chute back to the bottom. This system is closed and after the first push, does not interact with anything outside itself, but can it still have meaning? Without even awareness of itself, is the water wheel’s existence capable of having significance? If not, why does it exist?

Perhaps the importance of the water wheel is focused entirely in the first push. There is an initial dependence on outside forces even though it is completely independent afterward. The creation of a perpetual system is significant because someone or something has reached out beyond itself. But why does all significance have to involve outside interaction? The wheel itself is interacting with the water. Within the system, there is motion and relationships. Yet, even when it is motionless, the fact remains that there is a water wheel in the fountain, when there could just as easily not be one. One outcome of circumstance has won out over another. Perhaps that is significant in and of itself and does not need a larger meaning.