As I was passing by on a tram, I noticed a fountain that was elegant and pleasing to my eyes. It was on private land and maintained by a private individual or an organization. It made me ponder - what's the ROI of a fountain? Let's break it down into details of the costs involved. Land needed to place it. You need money to build and install it. Electricity needed to pump water throughout the day. Water itself. Regular cleaning and maintenance: motor replacement, cleaning etc. So, it is not cheap and what makes it worse is that there is no way to measure the return on investment. Unlike building a house or buying a car, it offers no real benefits. It is beautiful to look at and lets you spend a few minutes of the day staring at it. That leads me to a deeper question - are fountains a way to get us closer to nature - water sources in particular? Do they meet some kind of inherent need for a human being to be closer to the sound, the smell and the feeling of running water
Shower thoughts and observations on life and technology.