Something in this metaphor suggests a community which has great resilience and a certain timelessness, although it could also imply a place that doesn’t change either for better or worse because no traveller passing through leaves any impression.

‘The people of those communities form well-stocked lakes.  A man who comes to one of them is like a wanderer who pauses to fill his cupped hands, and, drinking, goes on refreshed in mind and body, seeing new beauty in the inspiration the water gives.  But only while he is troubling the waters does the lake know his presence.  Then the ripples subside, the fish go about their business.’

Source: Donald Hall, Romanian Furrow (London: Bene Factum Publishing, 2007 (1933)), p. 87

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