Bend Over

Here’s the Thing:

Pick up a piece of trash, even if it’s not yours.

My dad taught me something when I was about 10 or 12 that stuck with me, and he probably doesn’t even remember doing it. We got out of the car in the driveway one windy afternoon and he walked around in front of our house picking up all the bits of trash strewn about — a Dunkin Donuts cup, some dirty bits of newspaper, maybe a candy wrapper or something like that.

I must have walked right past trash in our yard thousands of times before that. I guess I just assumed it wasn’t my problem — that whatever was lying about in our yard would get blown on by the wind within a few minutes anyway.

That twenty second experience taught me something I’ve always remembered. There are some problems out there that affect us all, and if we all do a little bit to solve them when we get the chance, they won’t get out of hand. We don’t all have to pick up all the trash we see around town, but if we each pick up a little bit when we’ve got a few seconds to spare, then, after a while, there won’t be much of a trash problem at all.

I guess this one gets filed in the “we’re all in this together” category.

(Image (c) Jill Mueller)