Water scarcity is likely to become, in many living Americans lifetimes, the direst issue facing the human species. Yet even as billions of the world's inhabitants struggle to find a dirty puddle full of filth and microorganisms to drink, Americans have billions of gallons of water tied up in artificial swimming holes and billions more sitting in toilets just waiting to be defecated in. Its hard not to be grateful for the fact that its here. Americans use water very irresponsibly for every narrow purpose you can imagine. The resource is not, as many people seem to think, infinitely renewable. Neither is food, but Americans enjoy an abundance of that, as well. Courtesy of the nations rich history of ethnic diversity, an American can walk down a metropolitan street and acquire a cup of French coffee, a Jewish bagel, an Italian calzone, a German beer and Japanese sushi all before running into the next intersection where food waits from China, Vietnam and Ireland. Not only that, food vendors have re-appropriated much of the world's fare into quintessentially American dishes like hot dogs and hamburgers, apple pie, chicken and dumplings and Tex-Mex enchiladas. Our diet is not great. Fast food is appalling, no two ways about it. To a foreigner, our food might taste like a salty mess. But anything is alright in the proper dosage and variety, after all, is the spice of life. There is no shortage of anything you might want in the American supermarket. Just ask the rats and pigeons: from water pouring out of any faucet like magic to streets paved with discarded bread crusts, the abundance of sustenance available in America makes living here pretty outstanding.
Kyle Schmidlin is a writer and musician living in Austin, TX. He manages the news blog at thirdrailnews.wordpress.com. Follow him at facebook.com/kyleschmidlin or twitter.com/kyleschmidlin1.
