I stayed up late the other night, sitting at the kitchen table and looking over the DeKalb Water Quality Report. It had been sitting unnoticed among junk mail for a few weeks, waiting to be thrown out or perhaps used to kill an ant.

As I sat down with my late, post-class dinner, the water tower on the cover of the pamphlet caught my eye.

I was suddenly intrigued. It wasn’t because what was in the report had changed since its delivery. The same data tables and frequently asked questions still were sitting inside, waiting for someone who cared to interpret the information. But my perspective had changed.