Revisiting Water

Water is power. Those who control the water will ultimately control everything. It goes beyond food and food distribution. Because if you don’t have water, forget about the food. I met a young man who moved his family here to live off the grid outside of town. Asher Gelbart. Green Energy Now. You can google him. He was an imaging scientist and optical engineer. Now he runs his small business supporting off the grid living. He gave me his pamphlet and I actually read it. Rainwater harvesting. Domestic solar hot water. Composting toilets. As I wrote in an earlier post, New Mexico is in a severe drought. When I drove to Fort Bayard Monday, I looked around me at the bone-dry, barren landscape. A giant million-acre tinderbox. A few hardy plants and trees scrapped along, with sparse leaves of new green. Many looked like they’ve shut down for the year already, conserving whatever life left deep down in the roots. I don’t know this for a fact. I am not a botanist, or a seasoned veteran of high desert drought conditions. This area usually gets monsoon-like rain in the summer. Last year, not so much. Maybe the landscape changes. I will wait to find out.

But I was struck Monday and yesterday by where I found big swaths of green. The cemetery at Fort Bayard. I said to myself ‘they are watering the dead.’ The Grant County courthouse in Silver City. A majestic structure. The lone golf course southwest of town. The homes of the wealthier residents. A well-tended school playground, fenced against interlopers. Why? Respect? A show of power? Defiance against the arid conditions? I don’t know. But – nature bats last. So we’ll see how this season goes.