Introduction Part Ⅰ the Rain in Reno

What is this strange substance falling from the sky? On a rare rainy day in the high desert in Reno, Nevada, I find myself contemplating the subject of water and culture, the focus of this special issue of Concentric. Who would deny that water is essential to human existence, to the existence of all living things? And herein lies the difficulty of writing about water without merely stating the banal and obvious, without lapsing into truisms.