Good Drainage Makes Good Neighbors

That--"Good drainage makes good neighbors"--is a much used saying here on Soybean Island. I think, originally, the statement speaks for itself, but it has taken on further meaning among the locals, as idioms will. So, if, let's say, you had a fender bender with a stranger, they might get out, look at the damage and say, "Good drainage makes good neighbors."

Why?

I have no idea.

But here are a few photos of drainage which are sure to stir your heart (if you are a Soybean Islander):

Exciting.

Of course I do not have fender benders (I am not allowed to drive and, besides, certainly could never afford the luxury of a vehicle) nor do I utter Soybean Island idioms, but I can see their concern for drainage.

It appears to me that, geologically, this island is bowl shaped. That is, its edges rise up out of the sea and then begin to slope downward, very very gently, towards the center. I have never seen the sea here--I am not allowed; no one is allowed as far as I can tell--but I have seen plenty of drainage. And if you go out into The Homesteads, you can plainly see how flat and plain the plainly plains are, yet they slope inward ever so slightly as if the island is volcanic in nature. That is, that this island is an extinct (hopefully) volcano whose wide sunken cinder cone has filled up with rich muck, so rich that corn, soybeans and rutabagas grow like weeds in such soil.

Or like chives, perhaps . . .


Anyway, this is all supposition on my part as I have no training in geology, or in plumbing for that matter. Nonetheless, such things do not prevent me from espousing on such things. I mean, what else do I have to do?

Look at the sky?

Yes . . . And even the sky shows signs of drainage--a thin line of cloud-matter is being routed down and controlled and repurposed so that all is well and safe and tidy and shipshape and suppressed, repressed, oppressed, steam-pressed here on Soybean Island and Goodbye from Soybean Island.