I Drink Tap Water

I have begun a radical new practice. I have begun abstaining from plastic water bottles. I now drink tap water in an aluminum bottle.

My family has gone through at least one case of plastic bottles of water per week for at least a year. The habit started innocently. I'll just have one today. I'm thirsty, and I don't want to drink tap water.

This rationalization didn't really work. Every time I took a bottle out of the case, I felt guilty about contributing to the destruction of the environment - what with all of the resources used to make the bottles. I also felt concerned about loading myself and my family with unknown leaking chemicals.

Rather than change, the rationalization got more aggressive. Screw it, I told myself. I need fluids. I can't wash a bottle every day. Plus, tap water is full of junk too. The fight between the loud, aggressive, selfish, ego-part of me and the small voice that speaks my core values was on, again. The loud voice seemed to be winning.

I would see lots of folks carrying the aluminum bottles. Every time I saw one, a small voice said, other people fill bottles and seem to have reasonably happy lives. Why not you?

Forget it. I can't think about it right now. I'm thirsty, the voice snapped.

The guilt started to take root.

I started noticing countless TV news programs and magazine articles denouncing bottled water. The still, small voice gathered steam. You can do it, it said. You feel so much better when you live according to your principles.

The final straw was an article I read about the nuns who were protesting bottled water because clean, safe water is a basic human right which should not be limited to those who can afford it.

I have been flat broke twice in my life. At age 15, I lost my dad, and he had no life insurance. We made it with a lot of hard work by my mom and outside help such as the local food shelf. Later, in my twenties, I got a chronic illness and couldn't work. Food and shelter were the primary concerns. I would never have survived if I had to buy water too.

Can I afford bottled water? Sure. But, my concern is that if those of us who can afford bottled water just give up the tap entirely and ignore the need to have keep up the safety standards, what is going to happen to the people who can't afford to buy it? Most folks who don't have enough money to buy water, also don't have money to hire a lobbyist to get the water clean and keep it that way. I don't want to live in a country or a world where people have to worry about water in addition to everything else.

The way I see it, drinking tap water is a way of experiencing unity with all the other citizens in my community. It's one area where we are all equal. We all need and deserve clean drinking water.

The ego voice had heard enough. Okay, okay. I'll try it. Get off my back.

I bought aluminum bottles. We wash them and fill them. It's not as big a pain in the neck as I thought it was going to be. I really appreciate not having to engage in the internal battle every time I reach for a drink. Just like everything human, I won't do this perfectly. I'll drink from a plastic bottle again. But just like everything human, progress is what counts, not perfection.