Matt Dickerson’s article (Jan. 4) in which he expressed, among other things, his concern for the ecological health of our waters resonated deeply with me. Among all the resources civilization depends upon water is arguably the most vital, and also the most disrespected and wasted.

For the past 30 plus years I have led a mostly normal American lifestyle with one big difference. I have pumped the water I use by hand. My family helped and my wife takes equal turns now that she is retired, but most often it was my job. This simple fact is very hard for most people to believe, and it’s emblematic of why we pay so little attention to water. It is simply the stuff that flows from the tap, or the showerhead. It is there on demand, and who cares where it comes from or how. For me it was simply a choice I made when I was doing the plumbing for an 1820’s farmhouse I restored and moved into, and I never had reason to regret it. It’s been good exercise.

But more than that, it’s a daily reminder of what water means. This is not a trivial matter, and I have never even mentioned it before, knowing the type of reaction it would generally invite. Not that I set my mind to drudgery. I have such a love for water where I find it in nature that I’m content to meet it again with each stroke of a pump handle. This is what life feels like. It is what we bargained away so long ago that it scares people to think about it. It is what we may return to, gratefully.

In his book “Song For the Blue Ocean,” Carl Safina described our moment perfectly: “When things of great value that are irreplaceable in human time are knowingly destroyed, it can only be because we have elevated and venerated the worst we are capable of, and have all conspired with our actions and inaction in a great dishonesty and debasement of ourselves and our descendants.”

Brian Carter

Salisbury