The Opinionated Bastard

So last night, my wife and I went to this slide show by Martin Gray. It was very interesting, and annoying at the same time. It was very interesting because Martin Gray has spent most of his life traveling to and taking pictures of the world’s sacred sites.

It was annoying because he talked non-stop, and it was a mixture of interesting information about the pictures and rants about all kinds of things (like he dislikes much of the new age movement, despite being a member of same).

One of the things he ranted about was the proposal to use reclaimed water for snowmaking at the Snow Bowl. According to him, if this went through, then the people of Sedona would end up drinking the people of Flagstaff’s pee. He also likened having the ski area up there in the first place to be like “having a WalMart in the vatican”.

Well, I’ve been to the Vatican. I bought a plastic glow-in-the-dark Jesus from a nun for $.25. Come to think of it, the Chapel in Sedona has a really nice gift shop downstairs. If theres one thing the Catholic Church knows, it’s the correct quote; it’s the love of money that’s the root of all evil. So its too late, there already is a WalMart in the Vatican, and its run by nuns.

The argument about Sedonans drinking pee was just funny to me, because I live at the base of the mountain and I have a septic tank, so residents of both Sedona and Flagstaff have been drinking my pee for 7 years now. In fact, since about 10 neighbors live upstream of me, I’ve been drinking my neighbors pee for about that long.

In fact, the people of Sedona already drink the people of Flagstaff’s pee, because what Flagstaff does right now with that reclaimed water is let it flow downstream…to Sedona. All this snowmaking on the peaks thing would do is move the output north about 8 miles. So what would happen is that the people of Flagstaff would start drinking their own pee. Similarly, I guess that means that I would have to be drinking Flagstaff pee, instead of just my neighbors.

Of course, some people think that “recycling” your pee is a good thing.

Of course the real issue is that the mountain is sacred to the Navajo and the Hopi. They have a point; I wouldn’t like it if they went into christian churches and peed on the altar. But it’s kind of too late; my wife and I go hiking on the mountain multiple times a week, and there aren’t any bathrooms on the mountain if you get my drift. Somehow I don’t think that the Navajo hold it until they get home when they go hiking on the mountain either…

So if you live in Sedona, you’re already drinking my pee, and the pee of everyone in Flagstaff. If you don’t like it, well, I guess you’ll have to move upstream. I hear there’s lots of room in Alaska. As the joke goes, you don’t buy beer, you just rent it.

Of course, all of the water in the world was originally part of the ocean, and fish don’t have toilets either…

No matter how you slice it, I see lots of pee drinking in your future.