The Sudden Perspective Change of Losing Access to Water
'Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink'
I didn't start drinking coffee until I was 28 but once I got going with that magic "black gold," I rarely stopped. I drink TONS of coffee even though I'm fortunate not to need it to wake up or to be functional.
A few years ago I saw something somewhere about the importance of drinking water before anything else in the morning so you don't dehydrate your body first thing. It seemed wise so I didn't look too closely into it and adopted it as one of the few habits I successfully maintain.
When I wake up, I chug about 16 ounces of water to replenish and invigorate the thrilling bod I'm privileged to direct through this life -- after who knows what happens when I lay me down to sleep!
It makes me feel a probably undeserved sense of accomplishment as I (almost?) feel water moving through my delightful and delighted cells, bringing life to this life.
In the years that I've been drinking water and then coffee, I've only lived in or traveled to places where you can confidently drink from the tap, and wash your hands, face, teeth, body, food, clothes, dishes, etc -- almost always without ever thinking about it.
Nothing Else Matters if You Have No Water
But what happens when you DON'T have access to this most basic and essential ingredient for human life? What does your day / life look like when you have to consider finding safe water all day, every day?
How do you take care of other aspects of your life without water? Nothing else matters if you have no water.
Three days.
That's how long you can last without water.
The Obscene Luxury of Flushing Clean Water Down the Drain
We've (likely) all seen photos of women in various parts of the world carrying water -- often on their heads. In some places, the collection of water consumes so many hours of the day and makes the necessity of this element of life a true life or death issue.
When you have to walk for hours every day to find something to keep you alive, there is no question that every drop matters.
Here in the United States, access to safe and clean water has been an aspect of life many of us* have had the "luxury" to take for granted.
We flush entire gallons of clean and potable water down the drain every time we flick that magic switch on our water-guzzling toilets. And while the manufacture of toilets have become far more efficient in terms of the amount of water they waste to create waste water, we still habitually trash this invaluable resource.
Wasting Water is Our Way of Life
It's not just the obvious flushing of toilets -- we throw away water in maintaining lawns no one uses and which produce nothing except a need for chemicals and more water, in growing beef and other livestock rather than pursuing sustainable food systems, in countless other ways.
Our bodies are made of water, our planet is made of water, yet as the title of this post, taken from Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge from 1834, says, there is "Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink."
"Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."
Chug, Chug, Glug, Glug
I started this morning as normal, chugging my water and then making my coffee. After about an hour, I looked at Facebook (because as I mentioned yesterday, I'm 1000 years old) and was disturbed at the first post I saw announcing that there's a "boil advisory" for New Orleans that went into effect last night -- after a balloon knocked out power in the absurdly delicate and crumbling infrastructure of New Orleans.
It's free to subscribe but honestly I never loathe it if anyone wants to contribute something! Ya girl's gotta pay for this beautiful life somehow!
That a BALLOON is capable of taking down the water supply to a city of more than 350,000 is blowing my absurdly delicate and casually crumbling mind.
The pumps are back and have been working away again but the boil advisory goes until tomorrow afternoon. So you're supposed to boil water before drinking it, boil water before brushing your teeth, washing your hands, face, food, etc.
Apparently (allegedly) you can still shower (blech) as long as you don't get water in your eyes, nose, or mouth. WHAT THE FRICK? I've already been downing this shit! And is that more literal than ever? I am the puking emoji. Is my body now churning with not only despair and panic but also some really dubious and quite foul germs?
The Sudden Perspective Change of Losing Access to Water
It's challenging enough to remember not to turn on the faucet to wash the hands connected to my own body. I can barely imagine how hard it would be to also have to monitor children and make sure they don't get water in their mouth, eyes, nose.
It's pretty toasty in New Orleans and the desire and temptation to be surrounded by water is strong. I normally take very short but quite frequent showers and like to wash the city off me as soon as I get inside. When you have to rework your brain to focus on reducing your contact with something so fundamental to life, it is deeply jarring.
However the lack of clean water at my fingertips is clarifying my mind, if not my body. All other problems become secondary to concentrating on changing a lifetime of water habits. Everything else melts away and is suddenly less important than that which makes up 75% of our body.
*Not the people of Flint, MI, not the people of Jackson, MS, and the people in the west have been running out of water for a long, long time -- for quite different reasons. If you are not familiar with the situation in Flint and Jackson, give it a bit of research.