Final Paper: The Meringue Recipe

When we first encounter Ray, the main character of “Just Add Water”, he is sitting in the toll booth where he works. He is repeating the phrase: “would you like a receipt? Don’t forget to take a mint!” over and over to his customers. For most of us, a repetitive, mindless, and boring job like this would be bad enough. We then learn that he lives in Trona, California, a dilapidated and nearly abandoned town in the desert. We see his situation as being unbearable and wonder how he continues to wake up every day to this situation. However, for Ray, its not as bad as it looks. Ray is an eternal optimist. His positive affect means that he can take his situation and make the best out of it. This is unlike many of the other residents of Trona, many of whom became addicted to crystal meth and have no hope that things will improve. In Ray’s case, his point of view creates his own more positive reality despite how outsiders would see it.
As the film continues, we see that Rays situation is even worse than we could’ve imagined. His home life is a mess. His wife is despondent and refuses to leave the home, and his son is a delinquent with anger issues and a tendency towards crime. In addition, his town is run by the local drug dealer, who restricts electricity when anyone on the block misses rent. Yet, Ray remains hopeful. In his mind, this will all pass, Trona will return to its former glory, and all will be well. Ray even proceeds to pick up litter around the city. Of course, things do not immediately get better. In fact, Ray discovers that his wife has been cheating on him with his brother since the beginning of their marriage, and that his son is actually his nephew. Still, Ray maintains his positve outlook. It is easy to see how this attitude of optimism has led him to the path he is on. His neighbors have not fared so well. They have given up on any hope they had of having a better life, and have turned to drugs and alcohol instead of trying to better themselves and remain positive.
One reason that Ray has managed to remain hopeful for the future is his love for the local Rite Value clerk named Nora. Ray and Nora have been friends since childhood and have been secretly hiding their love for each other all of these years. Through small acts of kindness towards each other, they have maintained a platonic but still flirtatious relationship with each other. Ray always leaves her his change despite his own problems and Nora often hides certain foods in special places in the store just for Ray. We also discover that Ray has been carrying around photos of Nora in a tin box for years. He remains hopeful that one day they can be together. While Ray is unable to act on these feelings while he is married, we see the relationship between Ray and Nora evolve shortly after his wife leaves him.
After Ray’s wife and son/nephew leave him, Ray decides that it is time to make his own reality the reality for the whole town. He sees his son/nephew employed by the drug dealer and knows that the city needs a change. He believes that he can make Trona the tourist destination it had once been and restore the town to what is once was. After finally gaining the courage to ask out Nora, he devises an elaborate plan to run the town drug dealer out of town. Ray gathers up all of the residents and friends of Trona and together they get the drug dealer out of town and into jail, and to get the drug addicted residents into rehab. Miraculously, the rain that has eluded the town for years returns. The film then fast forwards to nine months later. Nora and Ray are expecting, as well as are many of the other residents. Also, Trona is no longer the run down abandoned city that it once was. It has been returned to its roots as a tourist destination and Ray and Nora have opened a successful restaurant. Through this, we see that an individual can change things for the better. For years, Ray’s positive outlook only affected his own reality, but when he made the choice to actively resist the negative path his town was taking, he was able to improve the lives of everyone around him. Ray was able to create his own reality by maintaining his values and opinions about the world around him despite difficult situations.
In Joshua Roebke’s article, “The Reality Tests”, Roebke argues that we create what we observe through the act of our observations. Scientifically, he explains how every time we measure or observe something, we are changing it. Roebke also explains how every action affects other particles. Just as we change the properties of objects by scientifically examining them, we have a social impact on the things we observe every day. Even before Ray made the decision to actively resist the downfall of the city of Trona, his small observations and decisions had a positive impact on the world around him. Choosing to stay positive in his situation created a more stable environment for his son/nephew as well as inspired others, such as Nora, to maintain her positive outlook. Had Ray chosen to give up on his dream of a better life, his son or himself may have become drug users, or may have just never had an opportunity to change the community for the better. Looking at Ray’s situation, many of us think that his life would have been unbearable, and that we would have left Trona altogether. Ray also could have done this, which would have led him to be in an even more different situation. Instead, he stood by his dreams, especially with regards to courting Nora, and was able to help others. His positive attitude inspired even the most far gone residents of Trona. His determination and positive outlook affected the entire city, and together they could work to create their own reality. Both Roebke’s article and the film “Just Add Water emphasize how an individual can change his surroundings just by looking at them in a certain way. This is true in both physics and in our everyday life, as demonstrated by Ray’s ability to save the city of Trona, California.
In Wendell Berry’s article “Faustian Economics”, Berry also thinks that the way we view the world has led to the current global situation. He believes that our desire for personal advancement and power has created many of the environmental and social problems that exist today. Unlike Ray, he says that most of us are greedy and not concerned with conservation and global improvement. He believes that the only way that we can reverse the damage done to the planet is to change our entire way of thinking. Imagine if Ray, instead of working to repair his situation, simply abandoned the city of Trona and went on to bigger and better things. This would have negtively impacted everyone living there, and probably would have prevented the city from ever being saved. In the same way, he says that instead of constantly striving to be better than others, we need to band together to reinvent our reality. Our current social values such as greed and the desire for endless knowledge about the world has made us into the wasteful society that we are today. While I do not necessarily agree with Berry’s proposed solutions and his use of biblical references, I do believe that the current situation of the planet is a direct result of how we view our role on earth. We have created our own current reality because we view things in this way. Like Ray, Berry is an optimist. He believes that we can all change how we think about the world and can actively make changes that have a large positive impact on both the environment and the way we interact with each other.
I believe that it is accurate to say that we create what we observe through the act of our observations. This is true in our own individual lives, such as with Ray, in science, as in Roebke’s article, and also globally, as stated by Berry. From all of these medias, we can understand the importance that our individual views and choices affect the world around us. No though or action is completely independent of another. This means that we have the power to make drastic changes just by altering the way we perceive things. Whether we want to save a town, prove quantum mechanics, or save the environment, it all begins with a willingness to acknowledge the power of our individual thoughts. Ray should serve as an inspiration to those who feel trapped in a situation. We should use his positive outlook and hope for the future, as well as the decision to actively work to make improvements, to change situations in our everyday lives. By realizing the power that we have when we make observations, we can all be more aware of our impact on the world around us.