Smirnoff, Phillips, Camel, Marlboro, and Other Garbage
Today I am grateful for the beautiful weekend weather, plenty of sunshine, time with my friend Dorothy, and a bike ride with Darcy.
I decided to go up and down our street yesterday afternoon to pick up some of the garbage I had been seeing, in honor of Earth Day, the sunshine, my physical capabilities. Among my finds were an empty little Smirnoff vodka container, two larger Phillips vodka plastic bottles, a Camel cigarette pack, and a Marlboro one too.
Add to that several plastic straws (one of the worst offenders to little critters), crushed pop cans, styrofoam and plastic cups, and more. It was both surprising and sad to see what others had littered.
Maybe some of it was innocent garbage. It blew out of a receptacle on a windy trash day, or fell out of a car accidentally.
But I am guessing most of it was guilty garbage. People being lazy, irresponsible, selfish, careless.
It all reminded me that we each need to do our part, and with billions of us on the planet, each of us does still matter. Every piece recycled, every piece properly discarded, every piece not needed in the first place, all matters.
I got another good reminder too. When I picked up the largest vodka container, I wondered what it would say if it could talk. Who had drank it and what were the circumstances. And those cigarettes too. Maybe they belonged to casual users, but maybe they belonged to alcoholics and addicts. I appreciated the reminder of my own sobriety and recovery and how vitally important they are.
I had a couple of positive exchanges with others out walking while I was doing garbage duty. It was a nice acknowledgement that most of us care. Most of us want to make a positive difference. And the ones who say they don't care, the ones who are negative all the time. They need us too.
I decided to go up and down our street yesterday afternoon to pick up some of the garbage I had been seeing, in honor of Earth Day, the sunshine, my physical capabilities. Among my finds were an empty little Smirnoff vodka container, two larger Phillips vodka plastic bottles, a Camel cigarette pack, and a Marlboro one too.
Add to that several plastic straws (one of the worst offenders to little critters), crushed pop cans, styrofoam and plastic cups, and more. It was both surprising and sad to see what others had littered.
Maybe some of it was innocent garbage. It blew out of a receptacle on a windy trash day, or fell out of a car accidentally.
But I am guessing most of it was guilty garbage. People being lazy, irresponsible, selfish, careless.
It all reminded me that we each need to do our part, and with billions of us on the planet, each of us does still matter. Every piece recycled, every piece properly discarded, every piece not needed in the first place, all matters.
I got another good reminder too. When I picked up the largest vodka container, I wondered what it would say if it could talk. Who had drank it and what were the circumstances. And those cigarettes too. Maybe they belonged to casual users, but maybe they belonged to alcoholics and addicts. I appreciated the reminder of my own sobriety and recovery and how vitally important they are.
I had a couple of positive exchanges with others out walking while I was doing garbage duty. It was a nice acknowledgement that most of us care. Most of us want to make a positive difference. And the ones who say they don't care, the ones who are negative all the time. They need us too.
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