Here it is June 1. Coming up on the summer solstice, my brother's birthday and the halfway point on our calendar for this year. I have that cliché kind of thought about how I could actually stop time when I was around 5 or 6 years old. Then, I wanted time to keep moving, except sometimes when I stopped it for a minute or 2. I wish I could remember how I did that.

 

Of course the Gulf oil spill is mightily on my mind, along with Mary and a lot of my friends. I am sure that BP wishes it could stop time for a while. I vacillate between anger about how they could let such a thing happen and some empathy for having responsibility to accomplish a task for which they haven't any experience to fix. We live in this fantasy world that thinks there are instant fixes for things. Ask anyone who watches a loved one die of cancer or some bacterial infection. Sometimes there are no instant fixes.

 

I am, in no way, reducing BP's responsibility. They have made billions of dollars selling us oil. They needed to have done a better job protecting us from this accident. They didn't. Now, it must be stopped. All the hand wringing, haranguing, fretting and accusations will not stop the leak. I sure wish I knew how.

 

There are 2 apparently contrary lessons here. First, we are alone. Ultimately, we must be self-reliant and must be prepared to manage our lives and our affairs. Second, we are all in this together. We must learn to gather around one another in our hour of need and help. Hating, accusing and the like will not plug the hole, in fact, fighting will probably slow progress.

 

My best answer is prayer. From here in Michigan, all I can meaningfully contribute is my spiritual support. Another cliché comes to mind. "love the sinner: hate the sin."