early Saturday morning, a water main broke in a Boston suburb - causing ‘unsafe levels of contamination’ in the city’s drinking water. a ‘boil order’ was put into place which explicitly instructed Bostonians to not wash their hands in the water, not drink the water, refrain from doing laundry/dishes and watering plants and under no circumstance are we supposed to cook with the water or give our pets unsafe water to drink. Basically, showering was allowed and how that’s any different than washing your hands, is beyond me; not to mention, animals (our “pets” are used to drinking out of lakes/ponds/puddles - let’s spoil them with bottled water. genious!) Originally, we were all told it would be weeks before the water could be consumed normally and used without concern - albeit the break in the pipe was nowhere near as bad as officials once thought (surprise surprise). Nontheless, chaos erupted. I should jump in here as well, on a positive note, and add that my hair and skin have NEVER felt so great as they did for those 2 days… if you see a girl bathing in the Charles, don’t ask why. Do we, as human beings, have a built-in trigger that causes excitement over catastrophe? Ready. Set. RUN. Grocery stores and convenience stores became mobbed and people became vicious - like carniverous animals over a dead carcass. I had to laugh because this wasn’t a crisis at all - it was a 2-day time period where it was ‘unsafe’ to consume the drinking water; does anyone have any idea how many parts of this world ‘live’ off contaminated water every day of their lives (and I’m not talking a bit of a leak from the Charles River, I’m talking animal ridden/sewer-used/brown community drinking water). We are all ‘freaking out’ over a water leak that’s being repaired and there is an oil spill disaster in the gulf of mexico that’s wreaking environmental havoc in the US and beyond. Guess what folks? This affects you too - go nuts. I don’t have enough time to sit here and go over the ‘real’ problems in this world but back to my human observation for a moment. Here’s the theory I have come up with: A minor crisis/a state of emergency if you will - causes self-absorption and excitement as panic sets in and people pretend the world is ending to add to their fun game. but a real crisis, a disaster, and a life-threatening occurence would actually bond people closer together… how is it that we get closer as the problem gets bigger? just an observation.
ps. if anyone wants a t-shirt to remember this historical moment in our lives:
