In a different context . . .
bell hooks (1994) uses the water as a metaphor for working toward progressive educational reform. In calling upon this metaphor, hooks not only highlights some of the complexities of understanding water as a resource but she also illustrates that our uses of water reflect (no pun intended) our material conditions and thus cannot be understood separately from our lives as political and economic beings. She writes:
When you are privileged, living in one of the richest countries in the world, you can waste resources. And you can easily justify your disposal of something that you consider impure. Look at what most people do with water in this country. Many people purchase special water because they consider tap water unclean--and of course this purchasing is a luxury. Even our ability to see the water that comes through the tap as unclean is itself informed by an imperialist consumer perspective. It is an expression of luxury and not just simply a response to the condition of water. If we approach the drinking of water that comes from the tap from a global perspective we would have to talk about it differently. We would have to consider what the vast majority of the people in the world who are thirsty must do to obtain water. (50)
hooks' point here is consistent with the idea of nonduality that I promote elsewhere in this webtext. Moreover, her discussion of how we view water based on our material conditions can be the starting point for classroom activities that can be developed to promote critical reflection on our connections to our environment and to each other--activities that can be party of a nondualist pedagogy.