I'm Drinking My Tap Water, Boston...

I heard "the news", that which is dominating the broadcasts of all Boston-based news stations and consequently the residents of said area 24/7, on the way home from the airport. My dad brought to my attention that a water pipeline in Weston broke and was forcing all residents East of there (most of metro-Boston) to either boil their tap water or rush to groceries and buy out all of the bottled water for fear of parasites and disease.

What could these parasites and disease actually do to you? In the 12 hours I've been in the States, no news anchor has managed to tackle that question. All they're telling me is that I, as a Lexingtonian, am being forced to boil my water, whether to use for refreshment or to brush my teeth. But I can shower in it! --- as long as I keep my mouth closed...

I keep thinking back to that time in Varanasi, India when the bed and the toilet were the only things I saw for 36 hours. I had been washing my teeth with tap water for 6 months, and nothing happened. It took a lot more than that for me heave over myself sick with parasites. Over the course of my travels, I never asked for no ice cubes, even though travel advisories told me to in all the countries I visited. I even drank tap water in Turkey! It was uber-chlorine-y and deliciously refreshing! After a year of travels, I'm still alive and I didn't even get that sick, except for that time in India briefly mentioned above. Keep in mind: loose bowels are completely manageable --- I don't consider myself "sick" when I have them.

So screw you, Boston. I'm drinking my tap water. I won't waste the plastic or gas to make sure I have purified water. Those parasites and me, we'll be great friends by the end of all this!

B(ee)

Now: Real Life Time...

I'm sitting in the Frankfurt (Germany) airport, waiting for my flight back to Boston. I've nearly checked out of my alternative world, my eight month tangent from the Real World and My Life. I'm sure I haven't been dreaming the past few months; it's been far too unpredictable (even in my dream world) and way too clear of a vision. Everything happened, but just how the last eight months fit into My Life is not clear yet.

Whatever we choose to call this program --- a fantasy, a myth, a tangent from life, an alternate world, a dream, an educational program (yeah...right?) --- it is an experience whose seeds have been planted and watered. Some have drowned, others have managed to survive in the darkest corners of my mind and will show themselves at appropriate moments to come. But for now, my mind so densely forested that it's difficult to find the seeds that were planted this year. Some of my memories and things I've learned are growing, thriving, shooting their branches up into the sky of my life. The others --- the late bloomers --- well, we'll see about them.

Apparently I can't think in anything but analogies right now. Everything else is hidden behind the branches and the brush. The next few months will be filled with a lot of clearing and I hope you're all ready to come along for the ride, I'll be needing your help.

Trying to see the light through the trees and the seeds through the soil,
B(ee)