Day 1 of “operation clean-up,” 4 short streets, 3 full bags of litter were picked up today by my daughter and me in our town within a matter of 2-3 hours. One person can make a difference. As we went about our business today, there were several things that really stood out to me, which I wish to share. We began on our street, all residential, and for the most part the litter was minimal. It seemed most people in our neighborhood picked up what was thrown in front of their house and our street was generally clean with maybe a few random pieces of small plastic wrappers that may have escaped from the trash with a swift blow of the wind on pick-up day. As we turned the corner and started down toward the school that was on the next street of our mission, we began seeing increasingly more trash. Makes sense, places that have higher traffic would have more misplaced trash.
What broke my heart was when we’d gotten to my daughter’s school, we went into the parking lot and the playground. The amount of trash we picked up there was enough to almost fill the first bag we’d brought. The trash was primarily candy and snack wrappers and single use beverage bottles. There is a group of older kids, who don’t go to her school yet loiter at it, that may be responsible for the mess we’d found. It was atrocious. The red sitting area on the small kids’ playground was covered in wrappers and spilled candies that were stuck all over the thing. There were empty bottles all over the place.
As I was picking up this area, I felt my anger brewing as thoughts of, “Who does this?” ran through my head. As I pondered this question I wondered if these children’s parents were responsible for failing to teach them to behave with a sense of integrity and social responsibility. It made me think about how I behaved as a young teen… I don’t remember littering as something I did. I always had some sense of, “Wait, I live here too, and I don’t want to live in a mess.” The more I picked up, the more I found myself questioning the sanity of the human population. How do some just throw garbage around with no regard for their own well-being… like wait, “I live here too…?” The anger within me stems from the idea that these individuals who are littering are stealing from me, my daughter, and others in the community by being careless with their garbage. We even found an old rusty scooter that some person couldn’t bother to put outside with their own trash pick-up.
Keep in mind, I don’t live in a slum. I live in your average middle-class neighborhood. As we continued on, so many thoughts ran through my mind. I began thinking bigger and bigger. I started feeling anger not only for my community, but also for those kids in the city and more desperate places that have a way larger trash and social responsibility problem than what I was currently encountering. I thought about how this has become “normal.” It seems behaving irresponsibly has somehow been normalized. It’s normal to walk by trash and not pick it up. It’s normal to sit by and do nothing as we pass by it every day with the excuse of, “Well, I don’t litter so why should I pick it up?” or, “I don’t have gloves and don’t want to touch someone’s trash.” So, we walk by day in and day out and become immune to the problem accepting it until we no longer see it and are no longer phased by it.
To further elaborate on this point, as we left the school, we went to the nearby plaza that we always complain about having a trash problem. In the plaza, I noticed that majority of the trash we were picking up was from the business located in the plaza. There were grocery store flyers from the store that operated there and liquor bottles from the liquor store that also resided there. There were also plenty of donut shop bags and cups from the shop within the area. Lastly, there were quite a few dryer sheets and plastic bags from the small laundry mat and other stores within the plaza. It made me think about the lack of responsibility that the businesses showed for the communities in which they operated. It made me think about the parking lot as their front yard and how they should take responsibility for keeping it clean. Yet, as we filled up 2 more big trash bags, I knew that wasn’t how they thought.
In the few hours that we were out, we had about 10 different people slow down in their vehicles and congratulate our act of service. They said things like, “Thank you for doing this.” Or “You both are doing a great job.” One guy strolling into the liquor store with no mask on also gave my daughter a dollar for her community service and proceeded to guide her to a piece of trash by the entrance as he said, “Why don’t you come and grab this thing over here? It’s been here all week.” We strolled over and picked the fuzzy green keychain up and added it to our trash bag, but I couldn’t help but think to myself, “So you have been observant enough to notice this sitting here all week and yet have done nothing about it.”
As this judgment crossed my mind, I also thought about how many times I’ve been to that plaza, saw the trash and not picked it up with the same excuses that I mentioned previously in addition to, “I’m too busy right now, maybe another time when I’m not just trying to get home with my groceries,” and I softened. But, here’s the thing… if we’re all so consumed with our own lives and go about business as usual, we become complacent with the problems that surround us. We can’t see outside of ourselves and care enough to do the things that need to get done and solve the problems that need to be solved. It’s crazy to me that a few hours of our time garnered so much attention. It’s crazy to me that seeing two average citizens doing something about a problem they see is something to be applauded.
What if we looked around and chose to be the solution rather than just a passerby? What if we realized that the fact that we can see the problem is a calling to help? Clearly, those creating the problem can’t see the problem or I doubt they would be contributing to it. What if those of us who do have eyes to see and hands to help actually took things into our own hands rather than looking at it as “someone else’s responsibility” or denying our own power to have impact?
I was proud today. I was so proud of my daughter for her dedication. I felt meaning, passion, and joy along with all of the other emotions I mention in this writing amidst the bags of trash and recycling. While I wish the attention for contributing wasn’t a thing because it was the norm, I am happy that my daughter received positive encouragement to contribute and make a difference from random strangers and not just me. I’m happy that these positive moments may have further empowered her to take problems into her own hands and change things for the better in this world.
Later in the day, when I’d called my mom to catch up on how her weekend went, my daughter hijacked the phone because she couldn’t wait to tell Grannie about cleaning up the community. This was the highlight of her weekend, despite having gone to the aquarium for the first time this year or getting a new sweatshirt at the store just the day before. She had such confidence and excitement in her voice as she went on and on about the types of things we picked up and the attention we garnered for doing the right thing. It made me think about why our institutions and systems aren’t actively creating empowered citizens. I don’t recall ever going on an environmental field trip to help impact the community positively as a child. I remember the first time I’d encountered actual empowerment in a classroom setting was when I’d taken a leadership course in college where our primary focus was to create and follow through on a community service initiative and write a paper about it. We need to empower the next generation by actively setting the example and showing them what it means to contribute to our community and make this world a place we’re they can actually thrive, not just survive… and surviving is actually in question if we don’t rally around sustainability as an empowered human community.
Everyone wants joy, meaning, and purpose in life, yet people don’t do what it takes to have it. I’m convinced in seeing my daughter today that everything I’ve read in spiritual texts is true. The more we serve selflessly, the more of these feelings we have. I know it seems far-fetched, but I hope you’ll test it and see. When we do good, we feel good. When we feel good, we’re more likely to do more good… and the cycle continues taking you higher and higher. Don’t take my word for it… try it and see if it’s true for you.
If you feel stuck, I’d love to help you get unstuck and find your passion again, or even for the first time. The world needs you. Your vision is unique… the problems you see are not those that I have vision for and the world needs you to step-in on those issues. I offer personal coaching and yoga services.