"Rain, rain, go away, come again another day." For better than three years we would never utter this grade school mantra. We would gladly suffer from a lack of outdoor exercise to see if we could get enough rain to end the drought. Well, more than ten inches of rain in the past few weeks could well be considered drought ending – at least on my two and a half acres. I mowed the yard on Friday and by Sunday it could have stood another cutting. We love the greening of the grass and the water for the flowers and vegetables.
Today we are singing for the rain to go away not because we would like a round of golf. Instead we sing so we may enjoy our indoor plumbing again. We have a septic tank. Our house is located on the lowest spot on our property. When we get rains like we have over the past few weeks the saturated ground means fill lateral lines. I just got off the phone with Patty. She had been home for lunch. It looks like the "porta-potty" for us – at least until we can get some Oklahoma sun and wind.
We will be inconvenienced. We will recover. I could not help but think about the e-mail I received well expressed in Paul’s post. Our few days of inconvenience won’t compare to the displacement continuing in Darfur. It hardly seems worth making a big deal about. We lose plumbing for a day or two – millions have lost their homes. We make use of a porta-potty – thousands have lost their lives.
There may have been a day when I would have been more worried about my own plight. But when I consider my part of the world community, my fight with too much water does not seem near as important.
Pray for Darfur, divest for Darfur, contact our government about Darfur … don’t e-mail me about my water …
Todd – Once again you’ve reminded us to put life’s situations into a proper perspective. For most of us, and for the majority of the time, there is someone else who is living in a worse situation, and would gladly trade us for our problems. Excellent commentary, thanks so much.