How Can a Cup of Water Tell Us What is Moral and Immoral?

We are faced everyday with choices about how we will live, what we will buy, who we will associate with, and what we will stand up for. Will we walk that block to the corner store, or will we drive our car? Will we get paper or plastic? Will we use shampoo that's been tested on animals or will we buy the more expensive one in the green bottle with the flowers on the label?

At some level, I believe most of us realize that these kinds of choices won't really make a remarkable difference in the world. It doesn't matter whether we as individuals eat meat or not, slaughter houses and factory farming will continue as long there is profit to be made. It doesn't matter if we as individuals drive that block or walk it, because the people who drive ninety minutes to work each day will continue commuting as long as they need the money.

So why do we care? Why do some of us choose to walk instead of drive, to get paper instead of plastic, to pay the extra few dollars for the flowers?

I was sitting at a coffee shop one day, drinking soy lattes with a close friend of mine. She peered at me over her rhinestone glasses, and asked why it was I chose soy milk over cow milk. "I mean, it's not going to change anything. If you really wanted to stop factory farming, then why not take actions that would have real effects? Blow something up or write a petition, make an organization or stage a protest."

I traced the whorls in the wood table while I thought of a reply. "You're right, what I drink isn't really goanna change anything. It's more a way for me to live in accordance with what I see as being moral."

"How is soy milk moral?"

I got up, went to the counter, grabbed a cut glass cup, filled it with water and added ice. I toasted her as I sat back down. "This is how I decide if something is moral or not."

"You propose a toast?"

I laughed. "Any system of morality has to have a constant, right? For some people, that constant is found in rules laid down by a god or goddess, a book or scroll. Other people judge what's right and wrong against rules written in legal ledgers, dictated by politicians and police. I'm not what you would call religious and I don't put too much faith in politicians. I judge what is moral and immoral, using this as my constant."

I jiggled the cup and the ice played chimes on the glass.

"Water can't tell you what's right and wrong." My friend sniffed and rolled her eyes. She adjusted her glasses.

"Sure it can, if you learn how to listen to it. Do you agree with me that being alive is a good thing?"

She shrugged.

"I would say, that sustainable life, that is, being able to be alive in a way that will enable future generations to live as well, is probably one of the only things most of us can agree on as being good. By this, I don't just mean future generations of humans. I'm talking future generations of bears, stallions, jellyfish, sharks, macaws and redwoods as well."

"I guess I can agree with that." She dipped her finger into her latte absently.

"I think that being alive is pretty awesome. If we are going to judge what is moral and immoral, the moral things would be things that encourage sustainable life, and the immoral things would be things that do not encourage sustainable life."

"This has nothing to do with ice water."

"It has everything to do with water!" I made a sweeping gesture with my cup and some of the water jumped over the rim and fell in puddles on the wooden table. "What is the one thing necessary to life? What is the thing without which nothing could survive? Clean, drinkable water, is more valuable than gold or diamonds or Picasso paintings. Without water, a human being would die within four days.

Therefore, if we all agree that sustainable life is good and moral, and anything that threatens sustainable life is bad and immoral, and clean drinkable water is necessary for sustainable life, then I believe that we can agree that clean, drinkable water is good and moral. That would mean that anything that threatens the continued existence of clean, drinkable water in amounts large enough to sustain life, is bad and immoral."

"That would make modern funeral practices immoral." My friend mused.

"What do you mean?"

She took off her glasses and polished them on her sleeve. "Well, all the chemicals we put in our dead nowadays to preserve them or whatever, they eventually seep into underground water supplies and pollute them. It's actually a pretty big problem, although I've never heard of a funeral being called immoral."

"It would make factory farming immoral as well." I took a sip of water. "The waste from the animals pollutes a lot of water, and the deforestation it causes leads to erosion which ruins watersheds and silts up rivers."

"Water isn't the only thing you need for life, you know." She put on her glasses and the rhinestones glimmered gaudily. "You need food and a place to live and air to breathe."

"Basically, you need a healthy land base to support you."

"A what?"

"You know, an ecosystem. Plants, animals, minerals, rivers. You need a healthy ecosystem so that you'll have things to eat and make homes out of. An ecosystem can't be healthy without lots of biodiversity, lots of different kinds of animals and plants living and competing in the same area. That would make anything that threatens biodiversity or the health of one's land base extremely immoral."

"Whoa, hang on. I don't get my food from the dirt, thank you very much. My land base is good old Safeway."

I flicked water at her. "Don't be stupid. Where do you think all that stuff in the grocery store comes from? Looking at Safeway through the eyes of this cup of water, it's a pretty immoral thing. Think of all the pollution, the deforestation, the extinction, a single Safeway causes!"

"Alright, but this won't really work for my daily problems."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... abuse, for example. It doesn't hurt water, it doesn't hurt my landbase, it hurts me. By your system of morality, there's no way to say abuse it bad. People could go around giving each black eyes and that cup of water won't have any words to stop them."

"There's one more thing that is integral to sustainable life that we haven't talked about yet."

"Which is?"

"Emotional health. You can't have a sustainable community if all the people in it are psychos or have severe emotional trauma or something. They won't make choices that will enable future generations to live healthy lives. So, anything that threatens emotional well being is extremely, extremely immoral."

"I assume you include the emotional health of macaws and redwoods and jellyfish too, huh?"

"Naturally. Biodiversity is essential to sustainable life, so we need lots of emotionally stable species able to raise cubs and pups and chicks that will grow up into emotionally healthy adults."

My friend stood up and walked to the bar counter. She returned jiggling six cubes of ice in a cup of water. "I still think people need to do more than just buy soy milk."

"I totally agree. But as far as it goes, soy milk ain't a bad place to start."

"I'll toast that."

Our cups clicked together.

So why do we care? Why do some of us choose to walk instead of drive, to get paper instead of plastic, to pay the extra few dollars for the flowers? For me, it's as good a place to start as any. Tomorrow, hold a cup of water up in front of your eyes. Look through the glass, the ice, the small pale rainbows, and see the world distorted slightly by the movement of liquid. Look through this cup of the Earth's clear blood and see what it has to tell you about the choices we make everyday.