Supplements

Commentary

By Liz Quirin

Friend, Can You Spare a Drink?

Why is it we just don’t “get it” until it’s too late? Look what’s happened to us in these unbelievably difficult financial times. We’ve watched our retirement funds shrivel into mere shadows of their former bullish selves; we’ve tied our children and grandchildren to a debt they will be hard pressed to drag around with them for generations after we’ve gone on to whatever reward awaits us.

Being reactive seems to suit us better than being proactive, but here’s a tip: When you turn on the faucets in your homes, apartments or condos, you can view liquid gold cascading into view. Water, clean and accessible, looms on the horizon as a new and not so distant issue that will be moved to the “front burner” in our midst. It’s already a critical issue in other parts of the country with drought and conservation front and center for many communities. It will no longer be power and money alone driving people but access to the life-giving commodity.

We have heard about people in Third World countries not having access to water, and donations have been used to drill wells, alert people to the need to clean up rivers and streams and to stop using them as the laundromat and the latrine.

Here, tucked in the Midwest, we seldom see or hear calls to conserve water, to refrain from washing cars or watering lawns. Our water bills seem like one of the few affordable bills that cross our thresholds in the mail. This presents a problem and an opportunity: a problem because we rarely hear about taking care of our water supply, of turning off the tap when we brush our teeth, using water wisely.

It is an opportunity, because finally we can be proactive, take measures to educate ourselves and teach our children and grandchildren about this precious commodity before we are, once again, shocked into the reality others have already faced: Clean, affordable water will not flow uninterrupted into our futures any more than it has in other places in this country. Sure, they’ve tried to water the desert into a garden, and nobody tried to stop or dissuade them from turning sand into manicured lawns. At that point it was still an issue of power and money rather than water availability.

People used to move to warmer climates from the frozen north or the gloomy climes of other areas of this country. Sooner rather than later, they’ll be making their plans based on whether they can be reasonably assured that water will be available and affordable. Things have truly changed, and we need to look at the future not only as challenge but opportunity to become better stewards of God’s creation than we have been.

Otherwise, people may not be asking, “Buddy can you spare a dime?” but “Folks can you spare a drink?” and it will be water they’re talking about.