What is a water store?
My friend’s feeling icky and flu-ish and the only thing she wants help with is refilling her 5-gallon water jugs.
So I discover there’s a thing called a water store. (Which my text editor is marking as a grammatical error. Does that mean it’s not linked to my GPS? I thought you all talk to each other.)
After seventeen questions more than appropriate for a place with exactly three types of spouts to choose from (the bottle washer, the normal water spout, and something that remains mysterious, even after all those questions), I lug two very full water bottles onto a cart retired from a respectable career transporting AV equipment across the local middle school, and I approach the register.
The cashier is a man with hair. So much hair. Hair down to below his chest, hair worn loose and curly, hair that is gray with some black and white mixed in.
“What are you up to?” he says.
“Just trying to help a friend. What are you up to?”
Perched on a stool, he tilts up his chin, considering.
“Drinking water,” he says.
“Eating pumpkin seeds,” he continues. And then:
“Taking it one gallon at a time.”
Do we care—or even notice—if someone says they’re taking it “one day at a time?”
But if, instead, we think about what a day means to us and talk about that?
Then, we form a bond with other people. We plant our words and ideas in their heads. We have a chance to affect how they think feel, and act.
Or maybe we just give them a two-minute anecdote to share with a handful of other people. (Hi!)
As for me? I’m trying to take it one early bedtime at a time. Or, well… starting tomorrow.
This Glass Has Water 