Happy Thanksgiving

My favorite holiday has arrived.

Not a good day to be one of these guys.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Marketing 101

A New Dawn has arrived not only in movie theaters (which I will talk about later) but also in today’s marketing world.

This video is quite simply perfect.

Cheers to John St. in Toronto for this splendid piece of work.

More blogs at burnandpeel.com

Right Now

It’s the day before Thanksgiving and there is a boquet of mama’s in this country with breast cancer. And they don’t know it.

This weekend San Diego was host to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-day, a 60-mile walk that passes through all the major nooks and neighborhoods in town. People in pink, men in tutus, ladies twirling brasiers, spectators holding up handwritten signs like “Boobs are forever!” and “Stop the war in my rack. Yes We Can”. And yet, despite all this support and fundraising and successes we’ve had in the fight against breast cancer, it’s still been 2-years since a perverse, bought and paid for government task force concluded that women in their 40′s don’t need to be getting mammograms with regularity.

Translation: The Insurance companies have bought themselves another government “ruling” so that they can use that ruling to adjust what they will cover in their insurance policies.

I support the capitalism in this country. I WANT innovative hardworking people to make money in this country.

But not at the expense of people’s health.

This is unacceptable.

If you are a mama go get mammograms REGULARLY, and whenever you want.

I give you permission to walk into an emergency room, give false information, and get checked.

It could be the single biggest reason why we need to regulate and reform the system. And shame on our government.

So irresponsible it hurts my stomach.

More blogs can be found at burnandpeel.com

Return

Tonight, throughout San Diego, heads may be put to rest, assuaged, and reassured for that purveyor of purpose of everything good and true, Tim DeMartin, already surpassed by greatest expectation among the free-formed accounts of the many 20,000 who have visited this blog, given it’s best implements and ornaments of my own humble faith in the world, has returned to the seat of his responsibility at this post. Without the warp, woof, and weave of my own story’s tapestry, burnandpeel would be an old and conventional reflection of fair equality, in which connection we particularly recommend Disney, Nike, and Gatorade for your satisfaction. A full and fair mindedness requires us also to report that here at burnandpeel, which for now sits on Ocean Beach’s main thoroughfare, homely posts, without cursing and remuneration, the opinions and thoughts expressed herein framed by the squarest mind in all of Southern California, remain unabatedly available at all hours, seven days a week, here at burnandpeel.com.

Great Dane!

If you had asked most anyone this question, who are the happiest people in the world, the answer would likely fall straight off the edge of Columbus’ flat map. In a world wrought with its own score of problems, economic uncertainty, global inequality, natural disasters, which country would you answer? Could you answer?

Well, the results are in, and after a multi-national survey from two different agencies, this study has concluded that there is indeed a happiest place on Earth. And no, it’s not Disneyland. According to the poll, the surest measures of a country’s well-being come from their freedom to choose how to live one’s life, encouragement of gender equality, and tolerance for minorities.

On every count and tally, the country known for its, “Beauty in the small,” Denmark has once again taken the top seat as the world’s happiest people.

Tillykke, Denmark! And thanks for sharing a bit of your happiness by tuning in today.

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to re-tweet, post a link on facebook, or visit http://burnandpeel.com for more.

Newfangled

tell a joke
hold the elevator
say hi to a stranger
make weird noises
kiss
talk to your God
believe in yourself
go one inch further
laugh at yourself
sing in the car
take a chance
forgive someone
call your Mom

...tell your story

http://burnandpeel.com

Arriving, First Daize

The road to Haiti is long and exciting. Once you wake up and step out the door, everything is a new experience. 

Arrive in Haiti and one of the things you first see are the people living on the whim's of the sun and the rain, and the beams of sugar cane that you can sell at the market. This is a land that can be seen under many different aspects. Beauty being one of them. The natural beauty seen here in the mountains and the sea, the clouds and sunshine, along with the vivid colors, all go to create a landscape that is truly breathtaking. 

Everything here is unfamiliar. There is a sense that all has been assembled out of dreams and an unpolished veneer of reality. Poverty is yet another unfamiliar element, poverty being more extreme here than anywhere else in the hemisphere, more extreme than imagination. 

Almost.

Stepping Into Yesterday

Fans of this blog are some of the most ardent supporters of their marque.

I know this because there is no RSS feed here, there are no fancy graphics, just a sign on the wall and a web address. Rest assured, I've made it probably as difficult as I can make it for you to get here, and yet more of you continue to arrive. 

It's truly humbling. 

I started this blog 2 years ago with a journey to Jamaica to document my pursuit of the reggae culture and their local Caribbean traditions. Pound for pound, I am a compilation of moments lived and the people that have shared those moments with me. But I'm firmly convinced, it took that experience to get me HERE to where I am today.

More importantly, I understand now that my life experience has slowly worked its way through the ground water so that I can come to a place to be able to write about the human condition. 

Regardless of how much money I make, I can do this forever.

For kicks I went back to read my first blog entry and I rediscovered the essence of why I founded this blog..

I wanted to open myself up to the world, to share a little of what I've learned, to take a chance at "chasing down my dreams", to laugh at myself. It's like that song by Counting Crows, "One way or another, I'm just hoping to find a way to put my feet out in the world." 

Recently I began to receive several messages on a variety of topics from my readers. Some people just wanting to give me encouragement for my trip to Haiti, some wanting me to continue on with my "experiment".  

One blog fan recently told me she wants to, "eat a rare steak off (my) tummy". All of these things, together says to me a couple things: a) I have no idea what girls want, b) I have no idea who exactly my readers are. 

So as I pack things up and set out for a new and inspiring set of circumstances, I want to open the floor up to all of you. 

I'm ready. 

Post a comment or shoot me an email at, TRDEMARTIN@GMAIL.COM

Come one, come all! 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

The Power of Redemption

Ten years ago I travelled to central Africa as a volunteer to post-genocide Rwanda. I can vividly recall the feeling in being over my head. I had no idea what to expect or what I would find, but I knew it would be a journey. Today, a week before the eve of my trip to Haiti, I have the very same feeling. 

Rwanda gave me a new perspective on the world. I saw first hand what it means to have EVERYTHING taken away from you. Entire villages that were occupied by orphaned children. Hospitals that were filled with patients dying from AIDS or malaria. Memorial sites that were left as grim reminders of the pain the country endured.

But it was here I also found the shared opportunity of reconciliation that has LITERALLY transformed the country into a beacon of Hope.

Haiti presents to me a similar opportunity. 

Understanding the plights of any country is a difficult task. What are black holes become the sky filled in by stars that are the faces and experiences once I set foot on the ground. 

Forming a personal connection to whatever I am a part of is all it takes. Give me the person, and I will show you the heartbeat. 

And, though technically, my upcoming trip to Haiti is a freelance assignment to help document a medical-non-profit, I’m going in the capacity of a photo-journalist and filmmaker.  

For the past few months, I have been taking in knowledge about Haiti like a sponge, and I’m hoping to include you, my ever-enlightening audience, in this pursuit of greater awareness.

Lucky Dog's Mama

Here's to my sister, Jessica, and the exceptional parenting of her pride & joy Lucky Dog.

I'm clearly outnumbered on this one since I don't have a dog or significant other. They are truly one of the BEST love affairs of my life. And as long as she has Lucky Dog, there will be no children coming into the family.

Lucky Dog, "Uncle Tim" loves you!!!

The Reason Why

Far superior to us emotionally, sexually, and physically, women find themselves in a much better position than men, and it's all because of this little "girl" right here:  estrogen. 

As complex as women may appear to men, the planet would be an awful, hideous place were it not for estrogen. A woman can maintain her composure while acting cooperatively with others. She is an excellent multi-tasker, and can jam about twenty words into the space I could fill with just one. Anything that is endearing and charming in me, usually comes from when when I am exhibiting qualities that flow effortlessly to females. 

Things like compassion, tolerance, patience, forgiveness are all things a women does with grace and elegance. Just look at any mother and how she is when she interacts with her child and you will invariably see what I mean. 

I have the simple joy of living nearby to a beach that I can walk to, where among other things, I can watch women interact with their little ones. It's truly an amazing sight. Most of us do what comes naturally, and when you combine all of these attributes in a female, mothering is comes about as naturally as waking up in the morning. 

Just so you know that I know, whenever I am my very best as a person, I am for that minute, connected to my "femaleness".

Thank you estrogen for making me believe that, aside from myself, the world can be a better place for everyone.

Time to weigh in...

I was watching the Padres-Pirates baseball game on TV last night when it was interrupted by a "BREAKING NEWS" alert about the death of Osama bin Laden. The U.S. had staged a late night campaign in Allotta...something, Pakistan, based on trustworthy sources, the unseen voice explained. My roommate must have heard me scream out in shock, she came running into the room.

"What happened?" she asked. Her eyes drifting from me to the TV screen. "Is this a great country, or what?"she said.

The easy answer to that question is, "Yes, and thank you for asking." But I didn't know what to say, I had mixed emotions, so I let the voice on the TV orate the moment. "Thousands are gathering now and waving flags, cheering USA! USA! USA!" The TV flashed images of Ground Zero alongside chanting Americans from Washington D.C. and New York.

When I woke up this morning, however, there was no shortage of dangerous gibberish on Internet streams and cable news networks. Besides mentioning it, none of it is worth reflecting on. That's because the one thing that rallied above all that nonsense, was the shared sense of national unity and justice for the victims of September 11th and for those we lost to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Over the course of the last decade, there have been over 6,000 letters and visits that have crushed mothers with the news of their son's death. Today, I really felt a collective sense that those efforts and their courage has been vindicated, all 6,000 of them.

How's that for a great country?

Further Evidence

that women are better than men. They're responsible, as team Mom's, to slice up the oranges for their kid's halftime break at the soccer match. 

Was there anything better? 

No.

Look at my man there on the left side of the photo, digging into that slice. 

Mom's rule. 

This week it's all about them.

Mom’s are the one person who can ALWAYS make the “booboo” better.  

Eww de Toilette

Until now, scientists have long been baffled by the peculiar behavior of male Capuchin monkeys, urine washing. When approached by a female, males will urinate on their hands and then heartily rub urine onto their bodies. Just like teenage boys dousing themselves in Axe body spray, their research renders up similarities to behavior in other species, as well. The hormones in urine have long been used by wildlife to announce fertility or territory. Male dogs, for example, will mark their territory with their scent and female elephants will announce their oestrus period from trace hormones in their urine. 

Finally, after a 4-year study lead by researcher Kimberley Phillips at Trinity University in Texas, research has confirmed exactly what we don’t want to hear:  that female monkeys actually respond to this display. Phillips reasons that, “urine washing by males might provide chemical information to the females” speaking to the chemical hormones that signals information about their availability and social standing. Since adult males have a higher concentration of the male hormone testosterone in their urine, those that produce more oftentimes can indicate their sexual maturity and social ranking among the group. These findings were initially linked when researches noted that males, when solicited by a female, “increased their rate of urine-washing,” said Phillips. 

Anyone familiar with the theory of evolution can take some comfort in knowing that humans have an enlarged frontal cortex and will probably use more sophisticated means of courtship. It's not that humans are better or more superior than other life forms on Earth. Certainly not. But it would stand to reason that females are far more “evolved” than their male counterparts - something that Darwin could never have predicted. 

Now onto real business...

Cappuccino, anyone? 

Coffee...Grinds

In contrast to yesterday's gold-plated marketing scheme, I offer up one of the worst examples ever. This commercial is so burdened by sexist ideology and wacky repression it leaves me wondering how women even existed during this time. At one point, I completely forget what they are advertising.

If any marketing cats today tried to parody this style and plug this into prime time, they may find, just by virtue of its anachronism to modern culture, that they would actually be selling their jeans or t-shirts. *cough*cough* Old Navy.

Part of me was almost waiting for this line from the girl at the end... "Listen you half-brained fruitbot, I bought this coffee because it tastes good."

It's not so much that we've gotten better in how we market to people. We have. It's that it stands to represent just how far we have developed as a society.

And it's not just our advertising that's benefited.

Happy Easter!

I hope you get to share the day with family and friends. 

Mmmm....Mmmm....Good Advertising!

This is unarguably the best commercial of all time. You know the one with the snowman who comes inside from outdoors, sits down at the table with a warm bowl of steaming Campbell's Chicken Soup, nestles in to take a sip from his spoon, and an adorable, freckled boy comes smiling through the snow! All the while, "Let it Snow" is playing in the background to complete the wintertime appeal of being home for the holidays. It makes me smile and feel warm inside every time I watch it.

What this commercial is able to accomplish is pure genius. Campbell's has simultaneously created a full-bodied advertisement that plays equally to all people, of any age. Kids watch it and they see a really cool snowman turn into a happy, smiling boy. They probably went to their parents right after begging for Campbell's soup. Adults can also watch it and instantly appreciate the warm and cozy feelings the commercial projects. The commercial lets you escape to a place we wish we could be all the time! It can make any adult miss his or her childhood, and can make any child appreciate the one they have. Campbell's Soup used the warmth of the soup to warm the hearts of people everywhere. It's the most well-crafted advertisement and is, still, the longest running commercial of all time. It aired continuously for 17 years, until last year when the commercial itself got "canned".

Last night, while I was out celebrating another friend's 30th birthday, I met him, the Campbell's Soup boy! His name is actually Scott. He's now in his 20s and was conspicuously dressed in sandy needle-cord pants and a light green hoodie, wearing a form-fitting LA Dodgers ball cap. Nothing like the plaid button up shirt in the commercial. But once you get past the disguise, you instantly notice the same freckled face and hardy smile that made him famous in his youth.  I asked him how he felt about being known as the "Campbell's Soup boy," to which he said, "I like it. The commercial connected with a lot of people, even to this day, and it's cool to think that I was able to be a part of it." I then said that the commercial has become synonymous with the winter season and asked him why he thought they took the commercial off the air. He sat forward in his chair and said, "It's been playing for a long time. It's still the longest running commercial of all time. I guess they felt that the commercial just got outdated. I hope they bring it back."

And I hope they do too. Campbell's Soup managed to create an advertising classic by bringing that warmth of its soup to the viewers at home. Most commercials have a short lifespan based upon the particular product they are selling and the demographic they are selling it to. Campbell's does right here by creating what all advertising and marketing campaigns hope to accomplish, timeless loyalty.

Bring this one back, please.

The Underdog

Whichever country you are from, we should all have a sense of national pride. There is no country that is greater than the other because there is no person who is greater than the next. I'm from the U.S., so naturally I'm biased towards my country. 

Historians would define it as ethnocentrism, the belief that your civilization is the best for the sheer fact that you - yourself - are in it. I love my country for a lot of reasons.. One of them being that America has typically been a nation of upstarts and underdogs, from the very birth of the country. It's the collective vision for who we are as a people. It is the ESSENCE of the American Dream that you can come from nothing, work hard, commit to something, and that the only thing truly holding you back, is YOU. 

Now, I could CLOWN these guys on their lyrics, but when they put out something like this, it makes me appreciate the value in being the underdog. 

Reflections

It's been WAY too long between blog posts. Time to grab a broom handle and lay tribute to some blues, and do some Spring Cleaning.

But I have good reason, I promise.

I've been busy turning 30.

Contemplating. Growing. Listening. Learning.

It's the last one that is the hardest, sometimes. There's A LOT of things I've learned up to here. Maybe even more things I've learned to appreciate.

I've learned the hard way this past year how to build a brick house. One brick at a time. Every day working. Patching things together, moving them around, and then along. And before you know it, when you look back behind you, there's a house sitting there.

However you would care to examine it, I have found a window to my soul, for the good, and the bad, right here.

THIS is not hard for me anymore.

I love my solitude now. I have many close friends, but RARELY find myself in the position where I'm "wasting words".

Last night I went out for a bit, and people watched.

I was on my "block" surrounded by people my age, when I became lost in a couple who were painfully expressing their own idea of what was attractive to the other. I felt like I could walk up to the two people standing there and tell them EXACTLY what the beginning, middle, and end of their journey will be together.

I felt lonely.

It made me miss my X a little.

Not that I missed the actual relationship, just the laying in bed part, watching TV, knowing what the "noises" she made meant... of being familiar with another person. I know it's all going to happen again, I'm just NOT into the process it takes to want to get "familiar" with someone.

The other thing I've learned is that the only thing a man has that's TRULY of value is his life experience.

I'm old enough now to know my life experience has allowed me to learn some things about myself. And I'm thankful to know I have the patience enough to listen to it.

Life is getting big. There's some distance here I haven't noticed before.

I am so excited for everything that's to come. But at this point, all these thoughts begin to come to mind...

I completely highjacked my blog this year for my own personal reasons.

For me this was as much about finding my way through the fire as it was finding my voice and being comfortable to stand on stage for the first time and sing.

It's also been a year of incredible insight. I'm not a big stats guy, and I hope to never be. Show me the game, give me the players, but all I really care to know about them is where their heart is. In terms of personal growth, though, stats can be very telling. This year I maintained my typical viewership on up to about the 11th month - that god forsaken 11th hour - when EVERYTHING changed. It seemed everyday when I would show up to lay another brick, more and more people would stop by. Denmark, Argentina, Iran, Russia, then China, then Morroco, then Belarus, you get the point. This continued for the ENTIRE month.

26 different countries in all, PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD had tuned in to read my blog this year.

Then you throw in the "hypothetical" that Angelina Jolie is following me on Twitter...

Which leads a man to contemplate some things, like how can you possibly even BEGIN to top that.

Angelina Jolie?!?!?! I feel like I'm standing right next to Brad Pitt.

But to just give up, would mean I am either extremely lazy, or just playing dead. Two things of which I am not. So I will definitely keep on building, laying down bricks.

Moreso, it's been a year of formulating a self-belief. Because sometimes it gets dark and I lose my way. I can get scared even - unsure and hesitant how to put on my cape and fly. But I do know this, I've never forgotten the WAY to where I'm going.

I also know I'm someone with lots of opinions and a LOT to offer the world.

You take the "self" part out of "self-centered" and "self-seeking" and you get some pretty cool concepts.

I need to stay out of me.

Let me look out of this reflection and into helping you.

God, however you choose to seek him out, REALLY is.

Like Never Before

As complicated as I feel sometimes, and as complex as I may sometimes seem....

This is where I'm most home. 

My cajon on stage performing. It's the very outlet I am most in love with. The music. The camaraderie. The absolute desire to push the boundaries in my own self. The reactions of what it is exactly I'm playing on. The applause. It's the people watching and noticing their ears perk up as they begin to hear a new song for the first time, and then working up the courage to start dancing in front of others because that's what feels right. 

When I play, I play hard. To the point where I will actually bleed on my cajon sometimes. The people who know me, and who play with me, know that if I'm not bleeding I'm not playing. It's not that I set out to bleed. In fact, I've worked up some pretty nice callouses to prevent it from ever happening again. It's just that if I didn't I would know in my heart that I wasn't giving it my absolute all. My very best. 

I have performed with a score of talented musicians. I've even gone on tour...twice. I am very familiar and comfortable with being on cue in front of others. 

Still, every time before I climb on that stage I have butterflies in my stomach. My hands get clammy. My knees start to shake. I'm realizing again, for the very first time, the demands of knowing that I am about to commit to something bigger than myself. Of being accountable to other people. Yet it's in that very feeling I also find I don't have to look out for myself alone. 

It's the sweat, the tears, and sometimes the blood, all go to create something that maybe someone in the audience has never felt before. 

Togetherness. 

(Photo Credit: Alfonso de Alba)

Better Man?

There is one thing I can't deal with, woman-hating after a break up. Now okay there may be that period where it is completely healthy and necessary to go back and review every little bad thing about your ex and how she didn't uplift and support you as a person. Break ups are quite possibly one of the most difficult things a person can go through because they are extremely painful. But when all that emotional dust settles and you look ahead at the clearing in the road, there has to be a moment of reckoning where you can reach inside and sit with yourself. We men create a bunch of drama and chaos so that we can learn from that experience and know how to be a better boyfriend in the next "go-around" of Love.

But to just close a chapter like that and say, "Look at what XXXX did to me." is not the point.

I've only committed to 5 girls in my whole life. And I'm almost 30. Commitment is a serious thing for me, and although it sounds a bit Looney Tunes, I honestly thought that I would be with them forever. And when forever comes to an end, it's a nightmare.

Sometimes you won't notice it during, but looking back I definitely can see that there have been many things I've learned about myself or my behavior in each relationship I've been in. Each trial and tribulation has prompted me to grow and learn things about myself so that I can become a better, more sound man. By going into and sitting with my psyche allows me to become a better boyfriend each time. And most importantly, by doing that, I get to look back at the "Girlfriend Graveyard" of my life and realize that each one of those five girls were pretty incredible people and each one gave me so very much.

There's not a chance that life is about being perfect. Because it really is about learning from all the bad and then allowing it all to become good.

Please don't hate your X. It makes you look shallow, and classless.

Move to another spot.

Look inside.

The Greatest...

U.S. Presidents aside, one of the greatest speeches given by one of the greatest Americans in all of history, right next to Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, and Babe Ruth.

Why? They all made us believe in something by giving us something to believe in.

This is one of the best videos on YouTube.

Every one of us on the planet should watch it.

Humbled by the King

43 years ago tomorrow Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be shot to death while standing on the balcony of a Memphis hotel.

The news will spread and send shock waves through the country sending millions of Americans towards an impulse of violence. For the next 5 days the country will burn. Cities across the nation from Washington D.C., Chicago, Detroit, Boston, and New York, 168 cities in all, will deteriorate into some sort of race related violence. In all, nearly 700 people will be injured, 40 people will die.

April 4, 1968.

Maybe that type of thinking doesn't work for you. But if you weren't alive yet to experience this, just try to imagine and recreate a moment that was so very "death defining" for our nation's history. Whether you lived through the moment or not, this was a time when our country was separated by MAJOR gaps in its generation and politics, and was one of only two times Americans actually wondered if the country would just simply disintegrate.

Therefore, to even try and quantify what Martin Luther King Jr. did for this country and his impact on future generations would be next to impossible. He was, in my humble opinion, one of the 4 greatest Americans who ever lived.

He carried the bright torch of humanity and let shine the light of freedom in ways no one else could have done.

With all do respect, I learned one of the greatest things tonight by going over your readings. 

"There is no glory in the finish line. The glory is all over me in the process it takes to get me there." 

In the end, you Sir would finish what Abraham Lincoln began 105 years earlier.

And you would finish strong. 

Even a white, rural boy growing up outside Detroit can tell you that.

I can't thank you enough. For all of it.  

Glory Points

Derek Redmond may have defined the spirit of the Olympics this summer in Barcelona, 1992. He was in the race of his life when everything changed. He snapped a hamstring and in that moment his Olympic dreams were over.

A lot of words come to mind when I watch this...

Power. Loss. Perseverance. Dedication. Sacrifice.

Love.

I was in training for Junior High Cross Country at the time, and I remember watching this on the TV highlights, and feeling so inspired by it I laced up my shoes and went out jogging around the block.

I never forgot.

I watch this video a good triple dozen times a year as it plays such a powerful reminder that we all have a strength inside of us that we may have never accessed or known existed, were it not for the pain it took to get us there.

GRATUTIOUS RECREATION OF THE MOMENT I DISCOVERED THAT ANGELINA JOLIE DECIDED TO FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER.

Message In a Bottle

World Water Day was on Tuesday. 

The UN General Assembly began the campaign in 1992 due to the challenges we currently face in the use and distribution of this natural resource. It has been years since the United Nations created this day of observance as a way to draw attention to the growing worldwide crisis of water sanitation and scarcity. But for many, such a reminder is totally unnecessary. Their daily lives are reminder enough. 

I know this from personal experience. I have actually carried fresh water by hand to villages in Rwanda, Africa where hundreds of people have gotten sick and died from not having access to clean drinking water. Africa is just one example. Worldwide, 1 Billion people have no reliable source of drinking water. 3,000 children die each day from diseases caught from tainted water.

Here in the U.S., it is our economic survival that seems threatened by water scarcity. Recently, the Obama Administration redefined the terms with Mexico on how water from the Colorado River can be distributed. This redistribution of water was also what put former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the hot seat when he cut water flow to California’s Central Valley. His concern, mostly environmental, turned much of the region’s fertile farmland into a modern day “Dust Bowl”. A metaphorical reference to the government's endeavor that left farmers with water parched farms and a loss of some $100 million in revenue. 

If water translates into money for a lot of people, it must follow that MONEY translates into water many others. 

Certainly, the bottled water industry would agree with this. When it emerged in the mid 90s, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY thought it was going BUST. Not only did it seem like risky business, but it was thought egregious that anyone should have to pay for what comes free from the tap. 

Today, the bottled water industry nets $100 Billion dollars a year. 

Imagine if our government sold water, we could cut the budget deficit AND generate a profit. Thankfully though, our government is not a business.

But with close to 200 billion - with a B - bottles of water consumed worldwide, the real indelible mark will likely be found somewhere on the Earth.

We throw away 38 billion water bottles a year. That’s in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic. We also have this accumulating pile of trash, mostly plastic, in our oceans. All of us are contributing to this heap of garbage. And if that doesn’t make us feel bad enough, there’s this:  24% of all bottled water comes straight from the tap. 

Not only that, but if we paid for tap water what we pay for bottled water our monthly water bill would run upwards of $9,000. 

It’s worth reiterating that Aquafina and Dasani are just tap water. There’s nothing wrong with that, since tap water is very good water — it’s just not worth paying 500 times as much for. I don’t have any argument against the convenience factor, either, since it makes perfect sense to take water with you when you’re on the go. You’ll just get something that has less bacteria and generally better quality if you fill your bottle from the tap.

Please go and visit their website at www.tapproject.org. 

Thanks for reading.