I try to be honest in everything I do. Really, I do. But sometimes, for whatever reason, honesty just doesn’t happen.
Sometime I lie to myself. I refuse to drink the tap water at the new house because I’m concerned about the ancient pipes underground. We even use bottled water for cooking. Even though we had the water lines inside the house replaced, there are still those galvanized pipes coming in from the street. We spend mucho bucks stocking up on bottled water.
But then I’ll get a taste for “good” coffee and stop at a local establishment for that fresh brewed java – which, of course, is made with the same tap water I refuse to drink.
Even the bottled water is a lie. It turns out the water I purchase isn’t spring water but “filtered water” to which a dash of lime has been added. Where does the filtered water originate? You guessed it – the same Great Lakes water I refuse to drink out of the tap.
Does all that make me dishonest, or a hypocrite, or just plain naïve? I don’t know, nor do I care. I like my particular brand of water and that occasional “fresh” coffee.
I tell myself that THIS weekend, I’ll grab that new camera and get out there to do some photography! Then it snows, or rains, or merely stays bitterly cold, and I opt to stay in my sweats all day playing videogames. And drinking “filtered” lime water.
Lies, all lies.
S0, what prompted this post at this time, you ask? What made me think of myself as not truly honorable at all times?
It was a silly thing. I was shopping at Walmart on my Friday off, around lunch time. As I was waiting in line, the next register opened and the white-haired lady in front of me and I both turned our carts to that new register. I got there first.
Just as I started unloading my cart to the conveyor belt, it occurred to me that the other lady had, in fact, been in line in front of me, so I asked her to please go ahead in the new line. She laughed and said no, I could go first, because — she’s retired and is in absolutely no hurry.
Now, I could have insisted she go first, and I could have let her know that I, too, was in no hurry as it was my day off. But I opted to let her think I was a fully employed person rushing through Walmart on her lunch hour, and I thanked her and went ahead.
I suppose that makes me a bit of a liar, but I prefer to think I made that lady feel good about herself for letting a needier person save a few precious moments on a busy workday.
Perspective is everything.
I rounded out my Friday by treating myself to Burger King (another lie to myself – I really don’t have the money to spare, nor do I need those calories!), where – surprise – I ordered coffee with my meal. Burger King is a block from my house, and I’m sure they use the same water line. The drive-through clerk accidentally gave me a large coffee while charging for a medium. I did not insist on paying the difference – and I enjoyed every last drop.
Happy Sunday, folks. May the new week be an honest week.
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Image by Cordelia’s Mom
Cordelia's Mom, Still 
There is no such thing as lying. There is just this thing where we express ourselves in a mystic and cryptic manner. A lie is nothing more than a riddle for someone to figure out, and get a little brain exercise. Perfectly harmless. Though I’ve never tried it, myself.
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It’s good to know that in your entire life, you have never expressed yourself in a mystic and cryptic manner. You will be my role model.
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You really shouldn’t bother. My whole life is a lie.
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There was a time when our town water supply frequently tasted like swamp water. The source was a small river that over recent decades suffers regularly from algal bloom. The water supply was treated and completely safe to drink, but apart from the swamp water taste and smell, there was the smell of chlorine to contend with.
I’m an avid coffee drinker, while my wife is a green tea drinker. Neither beverage tasted particularly nice when prepared with tap water. We consume a lot of rice and it too tasted “swampy”. While bottled spring water was available, it cost almost as much as Coca Cola, and long term would have proved very expensive. So we bought a small distiller and used that to turn the almost undrinkable water supply into pure distilled water.
That was almost 20 years ago, and we still use the distiller, although there is probably little need to today. In 2004 our town was stuck by a severe flood that wiped out the water treatment station and all of the intakes and filters and much of the infrastructure. The entire town was without water for 6 weeks while a new system was built.
The new system uses subterranean water from more than 100 metres below ground and is very clean and pure and does not need treating at all. However, apart from filtered chilled water and ice provided by the plumbed in fridge/freezer, we’ll stick to using distilled water for drinking and cooking. For one thing, it means there’s no mineral build-up in the jug (upright electric kettle for those of you who are not Kiwis).
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Ugh. I can’t imagine being without water for 6 weeks! Sure, you can buy drinking water, but how did you wash clothes, shower, and flush the toilet?
I’m fairly certain our municipal water is tested routinely and is safe to drink, but I’ve grown used to the lime water, and my husband insists on cooking with bottled water. I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon, so we just budget for it. Fortunately, the store brand bottled water here is not expensive.
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I forgot to mention that the sewerage system was knocked out of action for several weeks a well.
As for coping, you’d be surprised how well one can manage when one needs to. Because NZ is such a seismicly active place everyone has (or should have) at least a week’s supply of drinking water stored away for emergencies.
Within the first 24 hours the local council had organised a fleet of tankers to deliver water from a nearby city to emergency distribution points set up around the town. When the extent of the damage became apparent bottled water was delivered to every household in the town. From memory the was 10 litres per person per day.
The biggest issue was the lack of sewage facilities for several weeks. It was necessary to dispose of everything on our own property. In our case it meant digging a deep hole every few days within which we buried our waste. When the sewage system was restored, it was still necessary to fill the toilet cistern by hand and we we able to pull the plug in the bath rather than having to bucket/siphon water out. But in both cases the water had to come from our bottled rations or from one of the water tankers stationed around the town.
The event did make us appreciate the value of a free and unlimited supply of quality water.
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Wow, what an experience! I hope to never have one like it.
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I’ve been drinking the water here all my life, and prefer it. When we lived in Georgia, we installed a filter, but here, I’m fine. I’m sure it’s all in our heads, but hey, we’re the ones who live in our heads. Truly, it’s all relative. Our water is lime like whoa. But it’s what I’m used to.
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Exactly, Joey. The water may be perfectly safe but tastes different to different people. I’ll stick with my bottled water because I like it.
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I’d worry about how close you still live to Love Canal….but then, I drank the water at The Grapevine. 😳
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Ha, ha. The Grapevine uses County water, just like my house does. My old house had Town of Tonawanda water, which is a different filtration system but still uses the same water from the Great Lakes.
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You have to take what the world gives you, CM, so accept the good with the not-so. That said, no million-dollar errors … and unless there’s a big case study that proves that tap water is really bad for you, go for it. I say this as a devoted tap water drinker. (Who remains blissfully unaware of any consequences and committed to no research about it.)
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Mark, I know the tap water is safe and probably cheaper, but I’ve grown to like the taste of the bottled water. As long as I can afford those few extra dollars a week, I will continue to drink that instead.
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You deserve the treat with a twist of lime, CM.
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You can get your water tested for free by your local water department. I had that done at a place where I worked and it came back total swamp water and toxic. They had to install bottle water coolers. Also, tap water provides salts and minerals you need. I would be more worried about the chemicals leaching from the petroleum based plastic water bottle. ( Its always something)
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I hear you, Jane. Probably our tap water is perfectly safe, but I’ve grown to like the taste of the bottled water. Between food and the supplements I take for my colitis, I’m probably getting enough of the necessary salts and minerals.
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On the boat, our water was stored in a large tank aboard, to which we added a few drops of Aqua Sol. However for drinking water and cooking, we invested in a British Berkefeld water filter unit. It uses ceramic super sterasyl water filters and reduces up to 99.99% of particulates, systs, parasites and pathogenic bacteria ,including e.coli, crypto, giardia, and salmonella typhi down to .2 microns. We kept it and it’s set up in the kitchen here. Might be worth a look?
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Thanks for the tip. For now, I think the bottled water is ok. It’s very reasonable.
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Last summer I was told that a certain School District had shut off their drinking fountains because lead was found in the water. Only certain drinking fountains mind you not all. Don’t all the pipes run together is my question? I was also shocked to see a woman in her home drinking water from the tap water in the same area. When I said something to the effect that lead was found in the school that her son goes to, I asked why in the world would she drink the water? Her response was… Well are not the water pipes different in residential areas from that of the school water pipes? Are you for real lady? All of these pipes are connected in one way or the other! This is a true story. I kid you not! I too drink bottled water cuz I do not trust our drinking water. As for lies, what is a lie to one person is another person’s truth. It all depends upon the perspective. Simple. LOL 🤣
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Thank you, Amy. Good to know that at least one other person understands about those pipes. It was our plumber, himself – after installing all the new pipes in our house – who admitted that he personally would not drink the municipal water because of the age of the underground pipes. I figure the plumber probably knows better than I do.
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It’s ONLY common sense. Do people have any of that left these days? Bottled water all the way for me!! 💖
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Perhaps it is less “lying” and more like “living in an illusion” (or would that be a delusion?) because reality sort of sucks.
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Living an illusion actually sounds pretty good – ’cause I agree reality sucks, at least sometimes.
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I don’t like Burger King coffee.
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I’m not crazy about it, but Burger King was nearby and I was getting my food (such as it was) there anyway,
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I know exactly what you mean! I value honesty so tremendously, but I have come to a point in my life where I feel that I no longer should do things because I should, and not because I want to solittle white lies that protect me and do not hurt anyone are acceptable.
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I hear you. At a certain point in life, you come to realize that it’s no longer necessary to follow the pack. At a certain age, friends and family expect a little eccentricity – and that feels good!
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