I first read this piece in my freshman english class. All our previous classes dealt with issues of race and gender, so this essay was, at first, a bit of a surprise. Our lack of consciousness regarding water is astounding since it’s such an integral part of our lives.
“The water I will drink tonight in a restaurant in Hollywood is by now ell down the Los Angeles Aqueduct form the Owens River, and I also think about exactly where that water is: I particularly like to imagine it as it cascades down the 45-degree stone steps that aerate Owens water after its airless passage through the mountain pipes and siphons” (Didion 1).
She highlights the journey of water to the faucet, and the immense quest it must take, something she thinks about often because there is so very little of it in California. She also writes about the many different roles water plays in our lives. Indirectly and directly. When water impacts people indirectly, their knowledge of it is little. But for many people water, in the form of tropical storms, drought, floods, etc. Water is also a symbol for many people. People outside of California often cite pools as forms of water waste, but Didion says that pools (once filled) require virtually no new water since it recirculates. For Didion, pools serve a much different purpose “… a pool is, for many of using the West, a symbol not of affluence but of control over the uncontrollable. A pool is water, made available and useful, and is, as such, infinitely sooting to the Western eye” (Didion 2). Which shows how important is to the human psyche. Water, is omnipresent in our lives, but nobody thinks about it until it’s scarce. 
