As I was at my sink the other day letting the faucet fill my glass with cold water, I let some spill over and even set the glass down while the faucet continued to run and I thought, 'well that's wasteful' because I remembered back to the book I'm currently reading; 'the Journals of Lewis and Clark' and how at times the men in the expedition as they studied the land in Southern Minnesota or South Dakota were desperately thirsty. When they got back to their main boat(keelhaul) and resumed their path up the Missouri River (they don't call it the 'muddy river' for nothing) several of the men came down with dysentary. This also had to do with their lack of vegetables probably but still. I'm only about 100 pages in. Sacagewea hasn't even showed up yet but already you get the feeling that for what we take for granted without question was for them at times an extremely laborious and difficult task; to drink fresh water day in and day out.
Though that was just one of many challenges the explorers faced it was perhaps the most vital. After all, we humans Need water to live. There was no Coke or Gatorade or Paul Newman's Lemonade or Vitamin Water or Walmarts to stock up on plastic bottles of water back then. No Snapple either. Really, no Snapple? Really. Most of the time it was the mighty and muddy Missouri River and its tributaries. Two Hundred and Seven Years later, in the heat of Summer I can go to the faucet and let it run until it gets cold. I can watch the water go down the drain and then quench my thirst. Or I can go to the fridge and pour forth a delicious river of my own. It is called Minute Maid Tropical Punch and I can drink it cold right out of the carton. It reminds me to think of the expression, "Nectar of the Gods", as I do.
No comments:
Post a Comment