Stateside, a gas station. I drank a frozen blue beverage too quickly, and was struck down by a punishment this entire nation knows, and accepts, and has named.
The drink is called a slush. Ice, sweetness, and a blue that does not occur in nature. The day was hot. I was thirsty. I drank like a soldier at a river.
The pain arrived in my skull like a war horn.
Behind the eyes. Above everything. Total. I gripped the roof of my car. I may have made a sound.
"Brain freeze," said the cashier through the door, with no urgency whatsoever.
It has a NAME. The affliction is so common it has a household name, like a cousin.
"Tongue on the roof of your mouth," called a man at the pumps. He did not look over. He prescribed the remedy mid-pump, casually, the way one mentions weather.
I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth. The war horn faded. The healer nodded at his pump, finished, and was gone in a Chevrolet.
In my land, punishment follows crime by way of courts and seasons. Here, the sentence is instant. Drink with greed, and the ice strikes the mind directly. No trial. No appeal. Perfectly fair.
And here is what moves me. EVERYONE has felt it. The cashier. The healer. Children. Elders. An entire nation united by the same small lightning, all taught the same cure, all passing it on to strangers at gas stations, free of charge.
You cannot fully distrust a country once you know it shares one pain.
The freeze does not punish thirst. It punishes haste.
I finished the slush slowly, like a scholar. Blue tongue. Clear mind.
Then at the door I forgot everything, drank deeply, and was struck down again.
"Tongue, hon," said the cashier, without looking up.
Discipline is a journey.
#Environmental attorney Jeff Porter authored a blog post for the American College of Environmental Lawyers (ACOEL) on the #EPA and Army Corps of Engineers' proposed rule amending the definition of "waters of the United States" (WOTUS). He summarizes the back and forth on whether the definition includes #groundwater and how that question has played out in court, calling on the EPA to clarify whether it intends Clean Water Act protections to cover discharges to groundwater to help inform future #litigation. https://t.co/mgrAV8BLAo #waterlaw
President #DonaldTrump issued an executive order to counter state laws he claims hinder American #energy production by focusing on rules related to #climatechange and energy use. This move could challenge state-led initiatives such as cap-and-trade programs, impacting climate policies nationwide. Read more in our recent #environment alert: https://t.co/oZkl9ZRv7t
#Environmental and regulatory attorney Zach Pilchen was quoted in a @BLaw article discussing the legal intricacies of President #DonaldTrump’s order delaying #EPA Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. He explained how this rarely discussed part of the #CleanAirAct departs from the norm by creating a role for the President in air toxics regulation. https://t.co/XuiBrZYZFy