Water is a fluid. Water is the fluid. Water flows and moves like nothing else. It’s utterly familiar, yet utterly mysterious. Encountering an obstacle, water moves around it, over it, and washes away. Water moves, or does not. It is content to lay still and dark. It is content to move and change without end.
Waves are energy. The unceasing activity of waves is to carry the weight of water and throw it around the globe. An ocean wave, at it’s zenith, is the most awesome energy on the planet. Let loose, a wave is best content to travel only in a straight line. Waves step aside for nothing. A wave will roll on and on, stopping only to smash itself in fury against the immovable.
Neither can be contained. Neither can be owned or held. Both are phenomena best viewed with awe and respect. Still, one flows, while the other crashes… We sailors float upon water, but sink beneath waves.
That is the difference.