When my Uncle Joe came to America in the early 1900s, a cousin was waiting for him at the boat dock in Boston. “Joe,” he said, “I’ve arranged a job for you.”

This new American company called Pepsi-Cola wants you to manage its New England soda operation. They think soda and bottled water will be big one day.”

My Uncle Joe didn’t skip a beat. “No thanks, ” he said. “Even Americans aren’t dumb enough to pay for colored or bottled water.” My aunt Fanny never let him forget it either, he ended up running a small hardware store in Providence, or as she put it, “selling hammers and nails to the gentiles.”

I never thought I’d buy water in a plastic bottle either, but I started doing it when I took up bicycling and needed nourishment along the routes I took. Even though the water in our homes was always good, it became a habit, I always had a bottle of water with me, especially when I worked.

I’ve been buying plastic bottles for years, slowly becoming aware of the devastating damage they are doing to the beaches, the animals in the sea, the reefs, to the ocean itself, to our mother, the earth.

I can’t claim to be an environmental activist, I am planning on focusing in the smallest possible way on helping the earth and the animals, small acts of a great consciousness. I do this for the earth, for my granddaughter and my daughter.

The issue has always seemed too big for me, but it’s getting personal.

I have learned that the smaller the scale, the more I can do. I can’t deal with the overwhelming dimensions of climate change, the scale is beyond my imagination, which makes it so easy for so many people to ignore.  And Big Money and Big Politics are not coming along. They are willing to cash in right up to the bitter end.

I don’t want to ignore it any more.

I can do the best I can for as long as I can. And I will.

I’ve started buying my water from a company called ever & ever, I first saw one of their $2 aluminum cans at the Old Castle Theater in Bennington, Vt. The theater company had been longing for an alternative to selling bottled water for a long time. It wasn’t easy.

I love the taste and the symbolism, and when I look at those desecrated beaches and photos of fish and whales and dolphins and turtles choking to death on plastic, at least I will know they are not my bottles anymore.

The ever & ever bottles are aluminum, recyclable “forever and ever,” thus the name.

They are not easy to find,  even on Amazon. But I did find them and the link to them. A box cost $23.99 for 12 16 oz. bottles and I’ve been using them for weeks now and can vouch for them.

They are carefully and promptly shipped and will do a small bit of good. I’ve bought my last plastic bottle. And I still carry bottled water around with me, just a different kind of bottle. A nod to you, Uncle Joe.

I don’t tell other people what to do or preach or nag other people to do things. I do share my life and this is what I am doing. It is precious little enough.