W. H. Auden (1907 - 1973) Poet

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water — W. H. Auden

The words of Auden, despite the simplicity, has a sting in its tail.

Love here stands for all that we humans consider to be distinctly identifiable as attributes/objectives/aspirations/abilities/talents
of superior beings, viz. us. These attributes/objectives/aspirations/abilities/talents
then are believed to set us apart from other beings like animals, becoming the basis of an hierarchy in the great chain of being wherein we award ourselves the highest rank.

Water, here serves as the reality check, the sometimes gentle reminder and the sometimes painful slap in the face, consisting of those hard-to-ignore facts of life, like death, sickness, hunger, thirst, etc., that restores us to our rightful place in the great chain of being - not at the top as we're wont to believe but with and among what we've considered beneath us, animals. A case can be made that when things start going south for the world, humans may turn out to be worse than animals but that's another story.

That said, in those attributes/objectives/aspirations/abilities/talents that humans have used as justification to distance themselves from animals, we can see an opportunity to effect a great transformation - the earth, the world, will change forever and for the better if we nurture some of these decidely human "qualities". Perhaps I haven't felt thirsty in a while. Perhaps I haven't loved in a while