The runoff from the recent storm was still rushing from the mountain tops on the way down to the river. I needed to walk down on the river road to get to the place where I know the marsh marigolds grow. And I found them...but I also found something else that made me think about that word "respect" again.
I had a plastic bag garbage bag in the pocket of my barn jacket, and my garden gloves were still in the back pocket of my jeans, so I picked up the can and put it in the bag. The closer I got to the river road, the more trash I saw...I continue to pick it up. It breaks my heart.
The pools of clean water that the frog lay their eggs in - full of litter
...litter I cannot pick up unless I go back to house and put on my hip waders...I think of all the people who do not respect the land...
or the laws that are in place...or, most importantly, each other. It makes me very sad. It makes me feel helpless..and it even makes me feel angry. But sometimes-- you just have to put on your hip waders to pick up all the garbage that others leave behind. There was enough to fill 3 bags in the little area that I cleaned up. But there will be more...there will always be more...because some of us understand respect...and some of us just don't get it. OK, rant over...we now return you to your regularly scheduled blog....
11 comments:
I walk these steps with you. If we lived in the same neighborhood, we'd walk together. It is so true, "But sometimes-- you just have to put on your hip waders to pick up all the garbage that others leave behind." I didn't have to constantly pick up garbage in the city I used to live in, but when I moved to the "country" where wildlife exists and quiet too, I sing the Aretha song of "R-E-S-P-E-C-T"--a song I don't always understand why it has to be repeated... Having raised two through teen years I can relate to "respect". Your riverrim bursts with a continual flow of life.
Such an analogy. So many people, and thank God for them, do put on "hip waders" and clean up the mess other people make. And I'm not just talking about trash in a pond. Respect has to go everyway and everyday. Thanks for a thought provoking post.
I so totally agree with you and litter is one of the things that truly upset me ;in our towns and cities and especially in the countryside it violates and degrades our environment . Even the air we breath is polluted and your word 'Respect' applies to it all ; have we lost it ? do we only care about our own needs? Sorry to rant its just that strangely enough I have just had a similar experince on one of my walks last week and ended up having a clearing session after folks who have had a camp out and left their rubish :(
You've hit it right on the head; with more respect in the world it would be a much better place!
Every time we go backpacking, we pack out more trash than we bring in. You can quadruple that for canoeing (particularly beer cans). It breaks my heart too, and I can see the old Keep America Beautiful commercial in my mind. A lot of it is that people just don't *think*, I believe. I have to constantly lecture a friend of mine not to toss out apple cores or other food from her car windows because it attracts rodents, which attract birds of prey and there's nothing sadder than an owl sprawled in the middle of the road. You are so right and I too have constant lectures about respecting every living thing (plants included) with my 11 year old son. I wish more parents did the same. Now I hope Blogger will let me post this!
elizabeth@trailingyarn
The BS are going to work with PENNDOT and clean from my house to yours. But inevitably the weekenders will drop their bags of trash off along the roads because it is quicker than driving to the collection center, and in a month it will need to be done again.
The kids do grow up...look at #1 daughter...not all the way there yet but she has made gigantic leaps and bounds! My mom says they need to vent at home where they are safe...where was that understanding when I was growing up!?!?!?!
I've read this post several times over the past day. It makes me sad; sad because it is true. I walk to refresh myself and my spirit. The litter is a constant. More than that, the disregard for our natural surroundings is evident and intentional. I see what the developers are doing. Natural bogs, dug up and turned into ponds ringed with kitch, woodlands cut to be sterile lawns. Drive anywhere and experience the impatience and rage of the fellow motorists. You got it.. R-E-S-P-E-C-T!
It is a sad sign of the throw-away mentality of people. If the people who litter were made to spend hours of community service walking the public roads (where they'd be seen be peers)and back trails cleaning up litter perhaps it'd help. Monetary fines only cause a momentary hiccup.
Elizabeth reminded me of the old ad from the '70s of a Native American who'd get a tear in his eye from the trash. Unfortunately we used to laugh at the irony of that ad; the problem of trash along the Reservation roads where we lived at the time was heartbreaking. I surmise that it was more the problem of a people who didn't have simple means of adequetely disposing of trash, and had never been taught how to properly deal with it. Gargage pickup and sanitary waste plants just didn't exist.
Yep, Respect and being consciously taught how to deal with the trash you create.
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