MOULTRIE, Ga. — 

I recall back in my high school days a poem titled “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.” The only lines I remember are, “Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink. Water, Water everywhere and all the boards did shrink.”

Strangely from that same period I remember an entire Crest toothpaste commercial: “Crest has shown to be a decay preventive dentrifice when used in a conscientiously applied program of oral hygiene and regular professional care.”

I think both had practical application, but it was just lately that I have called upon the water analogy in a mode of deep thought.

When you are in hospital isolation for 19 days, there’s plenty of time to ponder Plato, Aristotle and the lint in your navel. And so it happened during that time I was watching a television commercial about the world water crisis which I guess had been greatly overshadowed by terrorism, corrupt politicians and quarterback contracts.

In this part of the world, we likely take good, clean drinking water for granted. Yet, in some Third World countries the women folk of various tribes walk many miles just to bring back a bucket full of drinkable water. I’m sure few if any of us have been that stressed. But I can see the danger in taking good, clean water for granted.

The other night I watched a documentary out of the Southwestern United States where water is becoming an acute issue as farms and cities compete for this life-underwriting resource. 

As well, we have a little thing called the Water Wars that is still going on here in South Georgia. Florida sued Georgia, claiming that our state has mismanaged our water resources that also feed into the Gulf of Mexico. Florida claims damage. Well, Florida lost that first round of litigation, but that doesn’t mean the issue has been settled. The Supreme Court may weigh in.

Meanwhile, actor Matt Damon currently is featured in a commercial which highlights the great demand for good water in developing countries. 

I recall as a youngster going hunting with my dad, and often I would drink water straight from a stream with no thought of pathogens of any kind playing havoc with my health. I never once got sick. I would not do that today. 

If we don’t think about how fortunate we are when we take a drink of cool, clean water from our faucets, then we may be embracing a false sense of security. We’ve already seen water issues crop up here in the U.S., though over a period of past decades they may not have the severity as they would in Zimbabwe. But we should remember the analogy of putting the frog in a pot of water and slowly warming it up.

Now I doubt that in our lifetimes we will see such a stress on our drinking water supplies as there is in those poor developing nations. We are more educated and enlightened — at least in some regards — so that we are prone to better manage those resources. However, I can’t help but be amused at the fact that while we shake our heads in disbelief as tribal leaders beat on hollow logs to summon rain, we are prone to sit in traffic jams and blow our horns. The ineffectiveness is similar.

Now when I get a drink of cool clean water, I can’t help but visualize that woman and her daughter walking miles to draw water from a muddy stream. And I hope we are not becoming the frog in the  pot.

(Dwain Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Observer, 985-4545. Email: dwain.walden@gaflnews.com)