"They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns" (Jere

This charge, brought by God against Israel, is applicable to all humanity. It describes in one sentence the underlying cause of every human ill and sorrow. obstreperously we cut ourselves off at the root, and seek, out of our own inventiveness, to produce an alternative life source. Her lies the ground of our estrangement and our longing.