When There Isn’t Enough
How does scarcity affect individuals and communities?
Water doesn't disappear all at once. Communities must take care to cherish and preserve their natural resources, not just for some but for everyone.
When There Isn’t Enough
There are moments when things start to feel…smaller. Not all at once; but bit-by-bit.
A missing invitation.
A friend who doesn’t reach back.
A sense that something you counted on is no longer there.
At first, it doesn’t feel like a crisis—just a shift. But that’s where it starts: the slow realization that there isn’t enough.
In The Stars Are Always There, Jess spends a long, lonely summer in the Texas Panhandle confronting many forms of scarcity—friendship, belonging, water, and ultimately, the question of what happens when there isn't enough.
The Drift of Social Connection
We think of scarcity as physical: water, food, resources, but loss often begins with belonging—the moment you realize there isn’t enough space for you where you once fit.
In The Stars Are Always There, Jess first encounters a shrinking of her social circle when she’s shut out of her friend group:
No ticket for me, but everyone else was going. How did this happen? I used to have clout in this fam. Now I was the one who didn’t make the cut. I was part of a squad, and now I was on the sidelines.
That kind of scarcity is privately painful, and it changes how we see ourselves. Once we feel it, we notice it everywhere.
When the Natural World Gets Quiet
Imagine a place that is brimming with life. Now imagine it silent.
No birds.
No movement.
Just wind.
In The Stars Are Always There, Jess confronts an absence of life as she explores the ranch looking for signs of water and animals:
We trotted over in that direction and, as we got closer, we viewed the dry, cracked bed of the playa, as the wind whistled through the dried grass. No animals, insects or even birds. Nearby, we discovered a flattened jackrabbit, its fur lifting and drifting in the breeze.
Scarcity doesn’t shout its arrival—sometimes it shows up as emptiness.
When There Isn’t Enough, Things Change
Scarcity reshapes behavior. Instincts shift, patterns break, and boundaries blur—not only for people, but in nature. Lack of food and water forces species together who would normally be rivals.
In The Stars Are Always There, Jess encounters a break in the natural balance.
The coyote trembled. “There’s not much food or water. I cannot travel, so we are staying here in the canyon’s shade.”
“What keeps you together?”
“We’ve gotten attached to each other,” the jackrabbit said. “The prairie community has scattered. We’re all that’s left… I can survive on plants alone. Coyote here needs meat in her diet.”
“Coyote is a lot, and her desperation is intense,” Jack said, “but being needed this much is a morale booster. I’ll be here until the end.”
Even predator and prey coexist when survival is at stake.
The Moment of Realization
We don’t really understand scarcity until it reaches us. Until what felt reliable…isn’t.
In The Stars Are Always There, the animal’s struggle to survive the drought is one small piece of the crisis:
I thought we could just give the animals water, but now it seemed like a problem too big for a small group of kids to handle. Climate change would not end soon, and some people were using more water than they should.
Who was using all the water? Why was it a problem now, even though the drought had been going on for ten years?
With new information, the questions change:
Who uses what?
Who decides what’s fair?
Who sacrifices?
Scarcity exposes what abundance hides.
Privilege shields some from it, while others suffer.
What Scarcity Reveals
There’s a moment when things become real and revealing.
In The Stars Are Always There, the farmer asserts his right to use the groundwater as he chooses:
Gus’s posture changed from friendly to rigid, his attitude from lighthearted to super thorny. “I have spent my entire life supporting this community and providing healthy food, even when the local stores and farms ran out. This is my home, and I’ve never left it, unlike some people,” he said, glaring at Uncle Frank and Father Teddy.
“I own the rights to the groundwater under my land, and I’ll use it as I see fit!” He stood fixed in place and glared at the crowd.
Scarcity doesn’t create character; it uncovers it.
When Systems Break
At some point, scarcity becomes visible. The ground gives way, structures fail, and survival becomes the only priority.
In The Stars Are Always There, Jess watches in horror as her friends are swallowed by a sinkhole:
I was a quarter of a lap behind the group when the ground shuddered, growled, and dropped away, swallowing Olivia and Ella. The shock was like an explosion. “OMG! What's happening?!”
I sprinted to the edge of the hole, peered through the dust cloud, and spotted them at the bottom, about eight feet down. “Olivia! Ella! Are you okay?” I could hear them coughing, and one of them groaned.
What was hidden breaks through the surface.
What Happens Next
When there isn’t enough, something else begins.
Not “What do I need?” but “What do we need?”
In The Stars Are Always There, the town gathers to reckon with the water crisis:
Uncle Frank began his talk about sacrifice. “These measures will last until the crisis is under control.” He cleared his throat and began delivering some bad news… “Fact: The toilet makes up twenty-four percent of your water use… During this emergency, reduce your use to two flushes per person per day.”
A man standing along the back wall shouted, “How do you expect us to do that?”
Sacrifice is shared. Scarcity forces cooperation.
The Hardest Question
Eventually, every crisis leads here: What happens when there isn’t enough for anyone?
In The Stars Are Always There, Jess confronts Gus about his own stake in the crisis:
“I have two questions for you. First, the water shortage is making life difficult for wildlife, and many animals, birds, and insects are dying. What will happen to The Farm if they all die?… what will happen to The Farm when there is no more water?”
Gus replied, “Without water, The Farm would not survive.”
This is not a question about blame, but about protecting the future.
What “Not Enough” Teaches Us
Scarcity is uncomfortable—but it teaches adaptation.
The normal world felt comfortable and reliable, but it was changing all the time. I couldn’t stop change, but I could open my mind to new things. Most challenges were not as hard as they seemed at first. A wise nerd once brothersplained to me, “You need a dark sky to see all the stars.”
Water doesn't disappear all at once. Communities must take care to cherish and preserve their natural resources, not just for some but for everyone.
Contact
www.jaimeswords.com