Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Do Me a Favor

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. ~Aristotle

Do me a favor: stop buying bottled water. I'm not saying never ever EVER buy a bottle of water again. I recognize that there are extenuating circumstances, but can we try to keep those to a minimum? 

We can do this the easy way (you say, "Okay, no problem.") or we can do this the hard way (I bombard you with facts and figures about how much waste is associated with bottled water, how it uses valuable resources, damages the environment, and drains your wallet without necessarily increasing the quality of the water you're drinking.) The hard way won't be fun. It will make me cranky if I have to compile all that data and I will lay on the guilt and pull no punches.

So maybe you're saying to yourself, "The environment is a mess. My drinking habits aren't going to make a dent in this problem." Okay, fine. So don't do it for the environment; do it for me. Have I ever helped you out and you said, "I wish I could do something to pay you back"? Well here's your chance. Turn on the tap (buy a filter if you need to) and we'll call it even.

Let's make bottled water a thing of the past, a habit so routine that our kids automatically reach for their reusable bottles when they leave the house. Let's send a message that we don't want to pay exorbitant prices for tap water in a pretty package. Instead, we want cleaner tap water and affordable options for safe and convenient filtration systems and reusable bottles.

We are excellent people who deserve an excellent place to live. So let's make excellence a habit, one drink at a time.