Every time I read Dune, I become hyper-conscious of the water waste all around me, of the beautiful life dripping, roaring, splashing, torrenting down the drain everywhere I look, wasted and ignored, never recognized for its miraculousness.

Now I’m reading The Dispossessed, and I find I can’t finish my dinner. So much for one person, such extravagance! And my possessions! The massive ego that possesses me to decide that I deserve to squander so many resources to travel alone in a hulking multi-ton vehicle that spews out noxious fumes and burns through precious fuel at a prodigious rate, just to get to a massive distribution center where muffins by the dozen and socks by the package and computers and refrigerators and power tools are all mine for the taking just by plunking down a plastic card.

And then after a while I come back to the real world, and I take another bite of my sandwich.