There is the big pond.

We are all of us around the edges, waiting for the water to reach us.

We are thirsty. We need the water or we will die.

I have been trying to understand everything. I take my little nuggets of understanding and throw them out into the pond. Maybe they will help raise the water level so it can come closer.

They splash and ripple. The ripple spreads out in all directions. But, because the pond is large, the ripple diminishes as it spreads.

From the shore, I see far out across the water. I see other splashes, other ripples.

Along the shore, other people are throwing their nuggets into the water. Some of their ripples coincide with mine, augment a larger wave. We hope our larger wave will reach the shore.

We are all thirsty and need water.

Alas alas.

There are some who throw their rocks at ours, their ripples oppose our waves and complicate the surface.

What to do what to do?

I look around me.

I see all kinds of people. Some are like me. Some are just neighbors. We are all thirsty. We all need water.

I look more closely. I see big houses. They have long straws reaching out into the water, siphoning it. The water level drops. For those of us along the shore, the water is farther away.

I try to think.

I am afraid to think, because of what I will conclude.

I see the way things are.

The people in the big houses have bought the water rights. They have hired the law and power. Some of them are almost still human.

I look around me at all the people of the earth. We are all thirsty.

I reach out to them. They reach out to me.

Our hands find each other. We walk together down to the water’s edge. We dip our feet into the metaphor.

We take care of the water and share its enoughness.

The ripples are reaching the shore. We go to meet them.