The Amazing Around Us

A raindrop falls somewhere in Columbus. It joins a whole bunch of other raindrops trickling down a driveway into the street, and eventually drains into a sewer. The sewer takes it to a local river.

After a short trip in the river, it gets sucked into a water treatment plant. It goes through rotating screens that remove any large debris. Alum, a type of salt, is then added to coagulate stuff in the water and the mixture is stirred. After a few hours of settling, the solids are pumped away and sodium carbonate (aka "washing soda") is added to soften the water. After a few more hours, the chemicals are removed, then carbon dioxide is added to lower the pH to a drinkable level.

Various processes further disinfect the water, then additives like chlorine and fluoride are added, and the water is pumped into storage until it's needed.

The result of the hours long, arduous path of the raindrop? I turn the tap and get a glass of clean, safe, crystal clear water.

The whole water treatment process, and the availability of clean, safe water, is completely new to humanity. For most of our history, you either rolled the dice with whatever water you found, or brewed beer or wine, which were sanitized and therefore safer (and more fun) to drink.

We should be in complete awe every time we turn on the tap. And yet. We complain that plain water is boring, and want something like sparkling water instead (guilty here – long live Sodastream).

We get annoyed when a website is too slow to load or the grocery store is out of our favorite pretzels. We get mad when the waiter doesn't bring out the mozzarella sticks fast enough. We consider shopping elsewhere if shipping takes more than two days.

We are surrounded by amazing progress that's the result of millions of hours of other people's work. And so many of us are just miserable.

To paraphrase a (rightfully) cancelled comedian who nonetheless makes a fitting point: everything's amazing and nobody's happy. Separate the art from the artist, I suppose.

In writer David Foster Wallace's oft-cited commencement speech, he shared a parable of two fish swimming in water. I won't spoil the story, but suffice it to say we're fish who don't notice how amazing the water is around is.

I realize I'm coming from a very privileged perspective. Go to any news website and there are (so) many reasons people are rightfully frustrated. I don't want to discount anyone's very real struggles.

And still, the average person's life is amazing, and rarely do we appreciate it. We have clean drinking water simply by turning the tap. And we have the marvels of indoor plumbing, heating and air conditioning, food refrigeration, cars and airplanes, Advil, antibiotics (really all of modern medicine), and all things technology. We can go to a grocery store and buy thousands of calories in a matter of minutes. We can pull out our phones and almost instantly be looking someone's face on the complete opposite side of the world.

And not only do beer and wine still exist, but we can drink from endless microbreweries and vineyards around the world.

So the next time rain cancels your plans, crack open something from your local brewery, and appreciate the journey a whole bunch of raindrops took to get into your glass.