I Am BP

I’m tired of hearing about BP. So tired... and angry. So angry! But what am I doing? Well, not being anywhere near the Gulf and not having the ability to travel there for any length of time, I'm doing what many people are doing: I'm very busy hating BP.

Then recently one evening I was draining my son's bathwater and taking a moment to breathe as my 4-year-old did a naked lap around his room. For those who know me, what you're thinking is exactly right. What? You were draining the what from the what? That’s right. In yet another admission of being a seriously flawed person, I was in fact watching gallons of grey water go to waste. Yes, knowing that I was doing the wrong thing, knowing that I was living in a state with a water shortage, knowing there was something I could have done to prevent waste, I watched every last drop get sucked down.

Then I had a thought: I am BP.

Okay, so I'm not an oil company. I'm a mom who lives in a rented apartment with her family and blabs on a blog occasionally and at times eats more ice cream than she should. But all this energy I'm expending to be mad at BP is doing about as much good as reenacting some drama queen moment from Gone With The Wind. I may not be an oil company, but if I'm not doing what I can to prevent the next disaster, than aren't I a microscopic version of BP? I know the risk I'm taking every time I am too lazy to recycle or waste water just like BP knew the risks they were taking. Heck, I hate them, right? So don't I want to be better than them?

Every day is a chance to not only recommit ourselves to save water and help the environment, even if it’s just so we don’t pull a BP. Sure, I would say that we have been doing a lot in this house. But every now and then, it's time to take it up a notch just like BP should have a long long long long time ago. When the next disaster happens, I would really feel terrible if the one I was hating was myself.