usual suspects

As if the original seven weren’t already enough, tripping us up, modern-times has handed us more that may even be worse. We explore.

You’ve got junk mail
And how it's multiplied in modern times

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Is anyone else …

Inundated with junk mail?

Junk mail is the 9th deadly sin (for those who send it)

I remember the bygone days when we could simply rip it up. Yes, it was a bother, and yes it was a waste of trees and no, I very rarely (actually never) replied. But like a lot of things when I look back all I can think is — how quaint. Compare it to today where I managed multiple email accounts each of which is fed with a steady drip of messages that I don’t even have to open up to know they are trash. And there are the phone calls. One after the next to the point whenever I get a call at all I’ve defaulted to answering, “No, I’m not interested in my vehicle’s extended warrantee.” To be honest, sometimes I feel sorry for the people on the other line. As much as it’s a bother to me, for them it’s their life, call after call trying to get someone to bite. Such is the state of the modern world. We’ve developed all this information to bring the world to the tip of our hands, only to fritter it away by clogging it all up with an onslaught of spam.

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Estimate: 33 percent of all mail delivered worldwide is junk mail.

8th deadly sin
And why it's just the tip of the iceberg

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Could there be …

An eighth deadly sin?

Or even more than that?

We all know the first seven well enough. Greed, envy, pride, lust, gluttony, sloth and wrath. And we all know how they are glamorized each in their own way. Greed is good. Why do today when you can put it off until tomorrow. Revenge is a dish best served cold. FOMA — fear of missing out — may well be envy’s rally cry. Gluttony is good (okay, that’s not a saying). And stubborn pride. As for the eighth? There’s actually a long list of contenders: ignorance, herd conformity (a form of ignorance), toxic insecurity, lying, turning a blind eye, the list goes on. The truth is, as society has become more complex, there are more and more sins that can trip us up, if not in the moment than in the long run. How about rudeness, impatience, and there are probably others, too. The only way to get to uncover them all is around a campfire. I’m not sure the original seven aren’t relatively benign compared to some of the new ones we can come up with.

Original Gate
A short history of water management

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There was a time when the water just flowed …

Unfettered, free and without a thought.

A parable of a water manager, at night, with regrets

And then we built the original gate. And one more after that, and then another and another until there were too many to count. Granted, nothing is more complicated than water management. But let’s also face the facts: We brought it on ourselves.

And now the question: Can we still fix it to get it right? Or is it too late. In this short video, a confident water manager wavers with a moment of doubt, and a confession, in the middle of the night. The good news: The Cowboy at the Campfire was waiting.

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Quote: “When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” — Benjamin Franklin