Guilt and Spills

My five year old grandaughter stood in my kitchen crying full of sorrow.

"What's wrong Gabby, Why are you crying?"

She removed her little hands from her eyes and pointed down on the floor where grape juice was splattered.

My husband and I said reassuringly, "That's alright honey, it was an accident, we can clean that up in no time."

I reached for some paper towels, and began wiping up the mess, while grandpa refilled her cup.

Gabby stopped crying and appeared relieved that her tiny accident was forgiven and just a clumsy mistake.

Isn't it funny that a five year old cries with guilt over spilling juice on a floor thinking it to be a large catastrophy? An ocean wasn't affected, nor did marine life die, or livlihoods and wild life suffer loss.

BP, earning millions of  dollars didn't exactly go to the rig in the Gulf and deliberately blow up the oil well. They did exactly and deliberately collect millions of dollars from the gadzillions of gallons of oil,  now spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from their damaged offshore well.

They did try to shift the blame, I'm guessing because of the cost of cleanup. They certainly did not demonstrate guilt and remorse as that of my five year old grandaughter. There appeared to be a lot of whining over accountability more than anything.

Just like oil and water don't mix, niether does greed and sorrow.

"You may make mistakes, but you are not a failure until you start blaming someone else."--Anonymous.