Last week, as my opponent clarified throughout his affirmation, the water wet debate is a dilemma of identity, not of definition. Though it is abundant and important, water is oh so tricky to define. Is it just simply two hydrogen and one oxygen, or is it more? Water, in all its fluidity, can be defined as many things. But it certainly cannot be defined as wet, in any sense of the word.

Though it may seem lifeless, shapeless and omnipresent, there is something innately human in the identity of the world’s most abundant resource. Water makes up 60% of a human’s body, and it drives us to develop. Without water, there would be no agriculture, no human companionship. Perhaps a better way to explain it is that humans are innately water. Without water, there would be no life, no emotion, no humanity. If water is the driving force of all that is living, why must we treat it as a substance, something that can be easily defined? Water isn’t that simple. Its identity predates any life, billions of years of history, an endless expanse of eternal liquid. If water is so ancient, so powerful, what is a humble human to attempt and define it?

Humans are too young, too undeveloped, to understand the depths of philosophy and complexity hidden within our world’s endless supply of water. Our language isn’t developed enough, our knowledge isn’t expansive enough, to find the deeper meaning of water, hidden deep in the trenches and oceans of our Earth. We don’t have the ability nor the right to define such an ancient phenomenon.

Water, as simple as it may seem, is much more than just “wet.” Water is the ultimate resource, the difference between life and death, the start and end of wars. Humans should not dare to quantify its importance, its power. No word, especially one as simple as wet, can encapsulate water’s importance. Water is not wet. It is not defined simply by what it does to those simple people around it. 

If anything, wet should be a descriptor of humanity itself. Humans, more than 60 percent water, spend our entire lives drinking and searching for more water. We are immensely infatuated by water, in any form.  Water dictates our emotions, changing our mood at the tip of a hat. Humans are extremely wet, physically and emotionally.

In the wake of our supreme wetness, us humans have no right to declare water under a single, three-word definition. Water’s prehistoric background and importance is evermore captivating and philosophical than humanity’s. Water cannot be defined, cannot be controlled. Water is not wet. It is infinitely more.