Haibun: Manipulation
Oh manipulation...
The Salt River sits dammed on the upper end. What flows through is controlled. Some estimates I’ve read say up to 60% of the water of Phoenix comes from the controlled flow allocated by the Central Arizona Project.
I wonder what that river was like before it was manipulated like this? I know the people in the Phoenix area couldn’t move in if there wasn’t this type of engineering. Progress like that helps us move to deserts like this.
Yet... I had this relationship where anything and everything that I did was used against me. Anything that could be conceived as a wrong was focused on and magnified. Soon, that type of manipulation won out and what was forgivable in him was unforgivable in me. It’s been a decade since I’ve talked to either one.
But he ended up with her, with the ability to keep her afraid of me and we never had the chance to talk it out. So in some ways, yes, it was progress. He got the girl. In other ways, it destroyed so much life by focusing on one narrow definition of success.
natural and controlled, knob turned
as spring starts to grow
