Water for Flint

Unless you have been living under a snowbank, you have heard that there is lead in the water in Flint, Michigan. Although they were hooked back up to lake water again last fall, the water pipes are leaching a dangerous amount of lead from the damage done by the river water that the city had been switched to.

Whether there is a villain here or not (Flint native Michael Moore was campaigning for impeachment of the governor, although he has been more quiet since he ended up in the hospital with pneumonia), Flint residents are victims and need help. After all the media hype, many have pledged their thousands for water and filters, and the government will probably spend millions before this problem is corrected. They may need to replace all the lead pipes.

Meanwhile, my water quality is excellent and additionally, I have always filtered it for drinking. I am one of the privileged in the world.

I expressed a desire a little over a year ago in a blog post to share some of my clean and abundant water. Rather than finding a needy village in Africa to help, it occurred to me that it would be much easier to donate some water to Flint--almost as easy as writing a check.

Today I dropped off a few gallons and multi-packs at a local furniture store. My modest contribution is but a drop in the water towers of total water needed to supply all of Flint with safe water, but I wanted to do my part. If the store is willing to truck it to Flint for free, I can certainly drop off a few gallons locally.

A gallon of gas is cheap now and the water will be delivered without any middleman taking a cut. I thought this was a worthy charitable cause.

(For the record--I filled up my gas tank today for $1.349, with three 5-cents-off coupons.)

I ran into one of the dear older women of garden club who was also dropping off water bottles. She joked that she bought water for Flint and wine for herself. There was a case of wine in the back of her car.

I am reminded of the post about water, referencing wine and water as the two liquid symbols of the church used in the two remaining sacraments of the post-Reformation church. The wine is of course, symbolic of the blood of Jesus, shed for us on the cross. 

And by the way, I successfully gave a pint of blood again in January--a good excuse for more time on the couch, since it does wipe me out a little. But yes, two good deeds done this winter, both forcing me out of my mid-winter napping. Sharing blood and water--it doesn't get much more basic than that.

 Now wouldn't it be remarkable (allow me this delightful thought) if the truckload of water turned into wine on its journey to Flint? That would hopefully provide a little cheer in the Flint community--but maybe not be as good for their more basic bathing and coffee needs. Hopefully, in this scenario (allow me this dark thought) the wine would then not turn into blood as they drink it, although the Maasai warriors of East Africa find drinking cow's blood nourishing.

(I rewarded myself with a coffee-to-go and a raspberry-filled, glazed paczki). 

Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone!