Water Water everywhere
The park was empty except for Filly, Tater, Mister and Pyp. They were on their way to the park this day since the day before had not worked out because it had been fully occupied by a bus full of adult handicapped people and their caretakers, so Filly had left and gone instead to the library.
They arrived at the park, a shaded structure with a volleyball court on one side and a rubber compost padding on the other side with many climbing structures and several tables dividing the two sections. It was slightly breezy and no one was there yet.
Filly could see that group from the day before apparently had left the park tables covered with trash. Disappointing. Filly noticed at least ten bottles of water almost full and spilled Gatorade stuck on the tables with some Coco Puffs stuck to the Gatorade. It reminded her of when she volunteered to give water to hurricane victims years earlier, and the “victims” would throw the water bottles on the ground afterwards, within literally feet of many garbage cans. Trashy.
It was good to bring water when it was a extreme heat advisory. It was good to take people outside to enjoy nature and to put them in a covered environment to keep the heat off of them. But both of these things were being “self serving”. When it came to thinking about others, surely people knew it was not good to leave trash on the table with spilled sugary drink so that no one else could enjoy using the tables the next day.
Filly collected all the used bottles of water and poured them on the Gatorade and Coco Puffs on the tables in order to clear off the sticky mess. She used all the bottles of water to clear off the table. Then she threw away all the trash on the other tables until they were clean. Order restored. Not too difficult a task…. especially if each person does their part. Kind of like flushing the toilet when using it. If no one flushes for themselves…then well um yeah…things tend to pile up and become a problem. But most people flush.
Filly was grateful she had regular toilets and not the water conservation toilets that did not actually flush the contents, and therefore needed three or four flushes, which then meant it was not conserving water after all. lol
Filly got out the play doh and set it up on the table. Filly thought Play Doh was a good thing to use in an outdoor arena. She had a whole new set, all colorful tubs with bright colors and a kit that could be used to shape the play doh into a cake.
That was when she noticed a large adult man sitting outside the covered area who had been messing with a phone charging at the electric plug in the corner. He was not looking at her, he was looking at the phone, minding his own business, probably charging a second phone. That was ok. Parks are for everyone.
Another man with a Magellan outdoors men’s boating boonie hat with shield, walked up about the same time, who had been jogging the trails . He stood by where the kids were opening their play doh, aiming his phone at the kids like he was going to take a picture. So Filly took a photo of him too lol. He then put down the phone and started doing scapular pushups on the far table seat bench.
One of Filly’s crew wanted to ride the scooter they had brought. The other wanted to draw with the markers they had brought. The third wanted to ride the toddler rolling horse they had brought for Pyp.
Then a whole family of kids with a woman and man arrived and had a boom box, a cooler full of drinks, two scooters and various colored volleyballs. They were two different families, and the man turned on the music while the lady with the two smaller children and the scooters came over to play with the play doh. The lady was friendly and sat down with her two young boys to teach them how to use the Play Doh.
The man with the older kids and the music and the volleyballs, went to the court and bounced the balls. Then he opened the cooler and shared some of his drinks with the younger kids which was nice. It was hot. The lady with the boys had not brought drinks.
Water, a commodity, was sometimes a thing that was overlooked but it was important. In the news this day, water was being called in scarce supply in some places. That was what they were saying, in fact, in Iran. That is what the government was saying actually, but that claim was being disputed.
To learn more, Filly listened to a news podcast where a news lady was interviewing a reputable author from Iran, who was very informed about the water situation in his country. He did not have a great command of the English language, which for Filly, made him more believable.
According to the man, ninety percent of the water Iran had, was going into agriculture, to produce food for the soldiers. The government had a program, to increase the population of fighting soldiers, and this over-allocation of water to agriculture, was planned in order to feed massive numbers of soldiers. The author said that taking even a small percent of the water allocated to producing rice or grain, and giving it instead, to the fresh water in cities, would solve the problem. A simple solution. Literally.
Filly had learned from her dad, that shortages in food or water supply, as well as claims of over or under-population problems, were never because of actual shortages or population problems, but were because of Government manipulation of resources. In Iran, the government was using fear to force citizens to reduce consumption because the water pressure was so low it would not feed the upper floors of high rise buildings. But apparently it was orchestrated.
The expert in Iran, said that these water shortages were common and repetitive and happened every year in the summer for many years running. According to him, the water cost for citizens was always the same, but the cost for government to obtain the water was very high in the summer and very cheap in the winter. The government did not want to pay the high cost in the summer for water, and did not want to allocate any of the agriculture water to citizens to solve the problem.
Filly thought about it.
Filly liked the idea of water as a form of baptism, purity, innocence. Without water, one could not start a new life according to many religions. Water signified renewal. Conserving water made sense. Using water to preserve rivers and lakes also made sense, and not just using water for agriculture to produce foods, when those foods were not needed for the existing population but were being produced to fuel an aggression.
Using resources intelligently to provide for citizens made the most sense of all. Filly was grateful for every drop of water, including the sweat on her brow as she labored to maintain supply of all that was needed by family. Service to mankind was a high calling.
The two cold bottles of water that they had brought from the gas station near the park were all drained by the hot thirsty children. Filly and the kids packed up the play doh, Mister had made an “earth” and Tater had made a “cake”. As the earth sat on the dash of the car, it would dry out and the water would evaporate. Then it would become hard as a rock. Desiccation was the evaporation of water from the land. It was not natural when the rain was diverted and fed to crops because the rest of the land was then desiccated.
The kids carried the scooters and the supplies to the car and they got in their seat belts.
Jesus walked on water Filly thought.
In Iran he would have had to walk on sand. Silicon. Computer chips.
“be merciful unto me, Oh God, be merciful unto me; for my soul trusteth in thee; yeah, in the shadow of they wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.”