Once upon a time there lived a glass bottle named “Here to Stay”. He was born in a factory that belched foul smoke and was hauled in an 18 wheeler to a NH market where he waited patiently to be bought by a thirsty customer.
Stacked on a shelf between Soda and Pop, Here to Stay languished for weeks longing to be sold. One lucky day a family on their way to a hike in the White Mountains bought him. From the depths of their backpack, Here to Stay rapped his favorite chant all the way to the summit. It sounded like this:
Don’t toss me out or throw me away
‘Cause here I am and here I’ll stay
Whenever you need water, I give you a drink
I’m forever useful so clink, clink, clink.
As years went by his family continued to depend on him. Dad reached for Here to Stay when he got hot and sweaty hanging the laundry or biking to work. Mom brought him to her science class when teaching about reusing and refilling. Grandma used him when gardening or running half marathons and the children took him to beaches, playgrounds and ball games where Here to Stay stood his ground at home plate.
He became sad only when bidding friends farewell. His plastic bottle buddies, Ginger, Cola and Crush were quickly discarded, here today, gone tomorrow. It was rumored that they met their fate after being driven to a distant landfill and buried in a pile of rubble. How shocking and wasteful to be dumped so carelessly!
Here to Stay’s family would never have considered it, not in a thousand years. They never stopped wrapping their arms around his waist and holding him tight as he continued his refrain:
Don’t toss me out or throw me away
‘Cause here I am and here I’ll stay
Whenever you need water, I give you a drink
I’m forever useful so clink, clink, clink.
The moral of the story: keep what you have and use it wisely.
There He Goes
Still transparent after years of service to his family, but in need of rest and glasses, Here to Stay was ready to retire. Droughts made summers hot and dusty. Rain no longer showered his pals in the family barnyard with refreshing droplets. The well had all but dried up so he had less water to give mud baths to the piglets. The cows couldn’t graze on scratchy stalks of grass and the ducks had to swim around in piddly puddles. Being a bottle, Here to Stay couldn’t jive to the barnyard blues but did his best to bow to the low mood.
One night a band of bad company men from a business called WASP (Water Ain’t So Plentiful) captured Here to Stay, blindfolded and bound him and drove him to a local MRF (Materials Recovery Facility). There he had to make the most difficult decision of his life- how to ‘downcycle’, which meant how, after his glass body was crushed and ground up, could he be made into something new. He considered,
I could be reborn
as a fiberglass cover
or a ‘glassphalt’ driveway
but I don’t like either.
I could be remade
for reflectivity
or four truck tires
but I wouldn’t be me.
So I’ll become a natural turf
on your school playground
and will stand by you forever
and never let you down.
Though the weather had worsened and water had become scarce, Here to Stay remained grounded and useful, protecting the next generation not only on his natural turf surface but through and through, until those playground schoolmates grew up and went away. So many blissful years spent together. What could be a better ending?!