We made it through. After expecting to dodge one of those Arctic winters of a bygone era in the Chicago area, we were hit with subzero temperatures — the only relief coming from the knowledge that these were temporary struggles.
So what do we do in Chicagoland when faced with winter hardships? We bear down, keep calm, and carry on. Immediately going into self-preservation mode, we do the polar vortex checklist. This includes: having enough food, having enough water, charging your car, having enough gas, have a back-up generator, space heaters, and don’t forget to keep water running through your taps so the pipes don’t freeze or burst. This is an identifying characteristic of the Midwesterner — to know what to do in polar vortex weather. You could go anywhere else in the world, and if you know to run water through your faucets on a subzero temperature day, you must be from the Midwest.
I have friends and family in various parts of the world, so they have different weather and different preps for the ever-changing weather anomalies. I told my friend in South Africa my woes about how cold it was, as they are currently experiencing an unusually hot summer below the equator. I walked her through what a cold day in the Chicago area looks like and the strategies we have for staying stable through extreme cold snaps and weather changes.
So when I told her about the strategy of keeping running water through the pipes so they don’t burst or freeze, I explained how my biggest concern was that the bill for water would be outrageous next month. Subsequently, I got a dose of second-hand shame when she exclaimed, “Oh my God! Where does all that water go? Do you collect it?!”
I paused for a minute as I did a cultural calculation of information and practices in my head. (She is in South Africa. They have deficiencies of water and electricity from time to time. They are conservationists = have compassion, carry the concern, times = mimic her shock and dismay, divided by, agree with her and echo her concern … now.)
So I replied, “Yeah. Ugh. No, we don’t even collect it. Can you believe that? We just waste the water. Oh my God.” To which she replied, “No! Oh my God!” that is such a waste!” She proceeded to tell me of South Africa’s drought issues. I felt more and more shame and guilt, thinking about the fact that in our communities, we have so much water that we can waste it so that our pipes don’t burst or freeze. We do not collect our water or conserve it in any way when there are countries and communities that can’t even understand our thinking and strategy and can’t understand how that makes any kind of sense.
If she had not been so surprised and shocked by knowing we let water drip through the faucets without collecting or conserving it, I would not have even thought about the waste from a conservation perspective. I was focused on the waste of money, but not the waste of water and who that water could help. And let’s face it, water is life.
So when the next polar vortex comes around, since the Chicago climate is on a warming trend, think about collection and conservation of all that water you’re letting get away. I would say we have time to plan. Our last two Christmases were snowless. But when January comes around, we can rest assured with climate change, we will probably have deeper and deeper deep freezes.
We are fortunate enough to not think about and live in a place of lack, but rather from a place of water abundance.
El Serumaga is a resident of River Forest.