Friday, April 30, 2010

My Gulf

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who are concerned about the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico and I've certainly tried to be as environmentally conscious as I can be during my adult life...but I'm truly shocked by how much this disaster is affecting me. Maybe it's because I've always been a Texan and spent my formative teenage years in Corpus Christi, but I really feel like somebody's screwing around with my Gulf.

It's personal.

Maybe it's because for at least a year after moving to Corpus Christi, I was extraordinarily lonely.  (This isn't so surprising since we moved there about a month before seventh grade - just a fabulous time to be a shy, new girl in Jr. High.) During this lonely time, I spent a crazy amount of time watching the sea gulls. Most people think of them as airborne varmits, and I suppose they can be a bit annoying, but I loved them. I loved their freedom and the fact that they weren't scared of anything. I loved how graceful they seemed and I guess I also just loved the fact that I was suddenly surrounded by a species of birds I'd never really seen before.

So I watched the gulls and the waves. I loved the water even more than I loved the birds. It was powerful and consistent - but also full of surprises because each day its color was slightly different than the day before.

Now the birds and water are at risk. For a few days I haven't been able to identify the feelings I've had as I read the stories on CNN but I truly think it's as if someone is taking away my security blanket. Those birds and waves kept me going during a very lonely time of my life. I just can't believe they're being taken away. I know it probably won't affect Corpus, but it's my Gulf. And for all I know, there's a girl who just moved to Louisiana and is having trouble fitting in at school. Maybe she spends hours watching the waves and the birds too.

And now they're about to be covered in oil.

1 comment:

Megan Willome said...

This is fantastic! You should think about sending it into the Corpus paper, at least as a letter to the editor, if not an op-ed piece.