I spent most of my last marriage explaining myself to my husband.  Of all the truths about me which annoyed him, perhaps the irk which I found most confusing was his insistence that I drink tap water.

I understand the arguments in favor of tap water — it’s there, we already paid for it, it’s cheap, it doesn’t come in plastic bottles that last for an eternity and pollute the ocean.  But my then-husband did not employ any of those.  In fact, his Republican heart resisted even acknowledging the validity of what he considered liberal propaganda.  Instead, he thought I should drink tap water because it was better for me than other kinds of water.

But I won’t drink it, I countered.  I don’t like the way it tastes.  It isn’t at all good for me if I don’t consume it.  I continued drinking — and paying for — what I called “delivered water”.  I chose a brand which claimed to be spring water.  I didn’t really care where the water originated. I liked the way it tasted.  I drank it.  I stayed hydrated.

Perversely, when we traveled, he didn’t insist that I fill and carry a water bottle.  He would buy Fiji water for me, for reasons that I still do not understand.  But otherwise he would belligerently and often loudly insist that I should just drink tap water.  After a while, I did not argue.  I don’t care to endure loud voices, so I would just smile and walk into another room.  While there, I would fetch myself a glass of water from the dispenser and enjoy it out on the porch.

I recently discovered a brand of spring water called Icelandic.  The name caught my eye at the Sprouts in Lodi because I read a lot of crime fiction set in Iceland. I doubt that I will ever travel abroad but if I do, that’s one of the places which I long to visit.  I tried the brand based upon the allure of the country for which it is named. I found that I liked it better than any other type, which is saying something since I think I have tried most of them.

This water costs $2.49 for a 1000 ml bottle.  No one but Sprouts carries the brand in my area.  I drive into Lodi on Fridays to get groceries, sundries, and this bottled water.  Every once in a while, it goes on sale.  Since I drink a bottle of it every day, I value those sales.  Sprouts has other spring water, including a brand called Flow which is only $1.99 per bottle and tastes almost as good as Icelandic though not quite.  And yes, I know, I can turn on the tap and get water for much cheaper.  But I won’t, will I? so what difference does it make?

I chill my bottled water and make sure that I drink it from pretty vessels.  Sometimes I raise a glass of cold Icelandic to my ex-husband, for whom I hold no malice and even a fair amount of regard.  He’s right about one thing.  Drinking water is good for me.

It’s the twenty-second day of the ninetieth month of My Year Without Complaining.  Life continues.

23

“Good morning,” said the little prince.
“Good morning,” said the merchant.
This was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented to quench thirst. You need only swallow one pill a week, and you would feel no need of anything to drink.
“Why are you selling those?” asked the little prince.
“Because they save a tremendous amount of time,” said the merchant. “Computations have been made by experts. With these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week.”
“And what do I do with those fifty-three minutes?”
“Anything you like . . .”
“As for me,” said the little prince to himself, “if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water.”

Chapter 23, The Little Prince
written and illustrated by
Antoine de Saint Exupéry
translated from the French by Katherine Woods