The rain kept up for days and the river kept rising. Upriver, a flood built up and came sweeping down, town by town.

A man rushed out to the outskirts and joined the group filling sandbags. Some friends rode by. They stopped and asked the man what he thought he was doing. The people he was with were unsavory in some ways. The way they were filling bags was subject to criticism. And besides, the friends added, the line of sandbags was very much not in the best place.

The man shrugged. “These are the only people out here filling bags,” he replied.