Pam and I make a run to Sam’s Club every time we get low on water. By “water,” I mean Ice Mountain bottle water. That’s the kind we prefer. A shelf in our refrigerator holds one case of Ice Mountain bottles. I’m not sure which icy mountain the water comes from. Maybe it’s in Nepal. Or maybe it’s from a tap in downtown Chicago. I don’t know.

At work, we have a Culligan water dispenser. I tried some tap water the other day, and it made me gag. I keep a big cup in my office for the good Culligan stuff.

But our tap water at home tastes good. We even have a cold water line in our freezer door, next to the ice dispenser, so we never need to drink unchilled tap water. But rather than use that, we just grab a bottle of Ice Mountain.

My pastor, Tim Hallman, published an excellent piece about bottled water. He mentioned buying a 24-pack of bottled water for $4. Then he did some calculations based on his water utility bill, and concluded that filling those bottles with tap water would cost a mere 24 cents. He also mentioned an NPR interview he heard in which he learned that making one bottle of purified water requires four bottles of water (for making, purifying, and transporting the bottle). And we’re in a water crisis.

Hmmmm.