Our emotions flow through us, like water.
Of course, water freezes and thaws.
Water can destroy, yes, but above all, water means life.
Nebraska’s water supply started its journey around 65 million years
ago, when a thick sheet of ice slid southeast at a slow and steady pace. As
it crept and melted, this ancient glacier carved the hills and valleys. Then,
Mother Earth’s climate shifted, causing the ice to melt.
This water pressure shifted tectonic plates, forming the mountain
ranges of North America. The Rockies and Appalachians trapped the
glacial melt and flooded the Great Plains region, creating the Cretaceous
Sea. Sediment erosion from the Rocky Mountains flowed from its rivers
into Nebraska, sifting the water underneath to create the Ogallala Aquifer.
This huge, natural underground cavern sustains us all here on the plains.
It is quickly being depleted, and is not easily replenished.
My father had strategically formed ice around his heart, and the loss
of my mother shifted the climate. The ice melted; it carved valleys, built
mountains, flooded the solid ground he thought he could navigate.
Dad shoved his feelings underground, but by the time he realized his
most precious resource was drying up, it was almost too late to replenish it.
“The Ogallala aquifer is slowly getting depleted, with the water table dropping by as much as two feet per year in some counties. And once they drain, it could take hundreds or thousands of years for those ancient aquifers, which were first formed millions of years ago, to fully recharge with rainfall.”
by Brad Plumer, the Washington Post
Traffic Stop: Human Division 