A Short History Of Water

An excellent post by one of my Icelandic "correspondents" triggered a flood of thoughts about that substance that is literally the wellspring of life. Vin vitæ, the universal solvent, H20, or just plain water.
I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a town built by and nourished from, the Mississippi River- the central aqueous artery for most of the central United States. I spent time on it, in it, and was filled with it- almost all the water I drank for the first 35 years of my life was taken from it. Not the best water, to be sure, but not the worst. When I moved from there, I began consuming well water, from a huge aquifer underneath the glacially deposited sand left over from the draining of Lake Agassiz. This is pretty good water, albeit somewhat hard. Two years ago, when I returned to Iceland for a short stay, I was drinking the best water in the world, and in what has to be paradise for a hydrophillic, was allowed to swim in it.

In the drugstore near where I work, I noticed that "Iceland Springs" bottled water is now available. So now, when I need a quality "water fix", I can have it. Crazy world, isn't it? Then again, perhaps not, after all what is the most important thing (after air) that an organism requires? Why not the best?