Desert living is different living. At least it is different from my growing up years in San Diego and my travels as a missionary in Central America and South America. I now live in a desert, but the problem is it doesn’t feel like a desert.
The air in Utah is very dry. In fact, one of the greatest transitions that our family had to make in moving to Utah was the lack of humidity. Really, it snows a ton here, rains copiously (like it has been for the last few months) and yet, this is the dry skin capital of the universe. God graced me with a wonderful skin composition which has never felt dry to me until I arrived at this place. I didn’t even know what lotion was until I moved here. Whilst the snow is flying, I am itching myself to death (self-inflicted road rash) and trying to find a manly smelling lotion that actually works (BTW, there are very few skin lotions on the market that don’t smell like some girl perfume). How can these things be? Well, we live in a desert.
The other thing that is weird about living here in this seemingly non-desert desert is because it looks so lush and green and mountainous and humid and lush and green (did I say that already?), you don’t feel like you need to drink water. Unlike the song from the Sons of the Pioneers, this place dupes you into not drinking water. I have gone all day without drinking a drop of the old H2O. Recently the chorus of that Sons of the Pioneers song has been ringing in my ears, “Keep a-movin’ Dan don’t ya listen to him Dan,” is talking about the devil beguiling us with mirages. Well that’s where I’ve been, not even looking for the most necessary component for our lives on the earth, water. It’s been a reverse mirage. Everything looks great, why drink any water? Remember, I live in a desert.
The next thing that is weird is we have a lot of water. Our mountains are right now holding a flood that is going to baptize the valley in which I live with so much snow runoff that it is probably going to beat all the records. Yet, we are preparing to give our water away to more thirsty climes, such as Southern California. Well, we do live in a desert. Maybe we are just trying to keep abreast of our regional environmental geography. You know, we are in a desert, so a desert we must remain. For those who don’t know, desert (noun) a region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all. And that’s the problem. We have water, but we are trying our best to give it away. Desert (with the voice of Jack Sparrow).
Finally, the frustration of itching while feeling dizzy from lack of water has got me all goof-a-lated (I know this isn’t a word). I have been so spaced out lately that I can only attribute it to the combination of this year’s attack of the pollen and my lack of drinking minimal water quantities. Who will save me from this body of death? Well I know Jesus is really going to do that part, but in the mean time, I got to drink water more regularly.
So, I hoist my water bottle into the air and encourage you to drink your water daily, even though you may live in a beautifully vegetated desert like I do. Cheers and bottoms up!
Strangely this reminds me of a line from the "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner:" "Water , water everywhere and not a drop to drink." I find that I am drinking less water here in UT also, and I know it is because, copmpared to Boston aat least, the water here tastes lousy. Fortunately, though, we discovered an artesian well, so I am doing somewhat better. BTW, I am enjoying your writing style very much. It sounds just like you and your natural gift for humor.