Short Answer 
The riddle explores the significance of water, emphasizing its transparency that enhances clarity, its varying depths that affect perception, and its essential role in life while also highlighting the challenges it can bring, such as visibility issues during floods. This duality illustrates water’s constant influence on our experiences and memories.
Step 1: Understanding the Transparency of Water
The first clue in the riddle highlights that water is often invisible yet plays a crucial role in enhancing clarity. This refers to its transparent nature, allowing light to pass through it and enabling us to see what lies beneath or beyond. This line emphasizes how water creates a clear view of submerged objects or landscapes, contributing to our understanding of the world around us.
Step 2: The Depth and Magnification of Water
The second aspect of the riddle points to the varying depths of water bodies, which can either be shallow or deep. This quality not only affects navigation but also allows water to magnify objects when viewed underwater, bringing distant visuals closer. Thus, whether it’s a calm lake or a vast ocean, the presence of water greatly alters our perception of distance and perspective.
Step 3: The Duality of Water’s Presence
The final clues reveal the profound role of water in our lives. It is essential for survival, as life cannot thrive without it, yet excessive water can lead to blindness in terms of visibility during floods or storms. Furthermore, this duality of always being both ahead (in current uses) and behind (in past experiences or memories associated with it) showcases water’s constant presence in our lives, shaping our experiences and memories.