Litter bugged

Driving to Church today, I had my window down enjoying the cool breeze.  I love fall.  The leaves on the ground, the smells of fireplaces on cool nights again.  Just as I was thinking how pretty the changing colors of the trees is, the car in front of me threw out a McDonalds sack full of trash that landed on the road in front of me.  Really aggravated me that someone has such disrespect for others, for the environment that they couldn’t wait until they found a trash can somewhere to throw their trash in.  I sped up a little so that I could pass the car at some point and see who would do that kind of thing.  It was a newer car, a Lexus actually and the woman that had thrown out the trash had a baby in the backseat in a car seat and a soccer mom decal on her back window and a little girl of about 8 or 9 in the front seat.  Since the trash came from the drivers side, and I don’t think the infant could have done it, I assume it was the soccer mom who threw it out.  What an awful example to set for her children.  Guess she felt it could be someone elses responsibility to pick it up from the road, or their yard when the wind blew it there.   I wondered if she had that type of “not my problem attitude” in other areas of her life.  What surprised me most was that as I passed and looked back in my rear view mirror, she pulled into a local Church parking lot.  Something about that really confused me.  I bet her daughter was confused too.  Go to Church, love thy neighbor, pray for those who are hurting, treat everyone with kindness and consideration, be an example of Christlikeness in all that you do….and throw out a bag of trash on a city street.

I have watched our office sink the last few weeks as it fills up higher and higher with dirty dishes.  Above the sink a faded handwritten sign  says “please clean up your own messes and keep our kitchen clean”.  A handful of us have our own coffee cup which we wash out everyday and keep at our desk for our exclusive use.  We are the ones who usually get tired of the stench of the souring dishes and stop our work day to go wash them. We aren’t the ones who are messing them up.  But we are the ones cleaning up after those who do and have no consideration for their co-workers.  I’m sure they think, well its just one plate or just one cup…not worth washing right now.  But those add up and pretty soon there is a sinkful of stinky dishes.  Evenutally they will spill over onto the floor and then someone will have to deal with that mess.  The few of us who don’t make the mess, but who have cleaned it have decided that we will not do it this time.  We will instead wait until every single dish in the cabinet, every cup is dirty and see if any of the offenders step up to the plate and clean up the mess.  Our boss said that if she comes in next week and all the dishes are still piled in the sink she will take a trash bag and throw them all out and there will be no plates or cups or bowls to use.  Sounds like a plan to me.  Its sad though that it takes such an extreme stance to get people to take responsibility for their actions.

As I went to walk at the park last week, I got out of my car and narrowly missed stepping onto a dirty diaper.  The trash can was about 2 feet away.  Leaving the grocery store a few days ago I stepped into a wad of chewing gum and had to spend several minutes trying to get the gum off my shoe.  At lunch last week, I watched a family of four get up and leave their table piled with their trash when right next to their table was the trash can and the tray return, obviously a self service, throw away your own trash place. 

Sometimes its easy to understand the lack of respect of youth when you look around at the adults that they are modeling and see that they aren’t teaching respect for others and your surroundings but instead seem to be modeling "it's someone else’s problem. "

Years ago, my ex-husband used the term “the guy with blue fingers” in reference to a trip to the grocery and a decision not to buy a particular product because a few aisles over there was a sale on something we preferred.  Instead, of backtracking to put the item we didn’t want back he said “let the guy with the blue fingers put it back”.  I had no idea what he was talking about until he explained.  Years ago, before prices were on the shelves and scanned at the register there were employees who used stampers to stamp the price on the boxes and cans and sacks.  Thus their fingers were always stained with the blue ink from the stampers.  Now everytime I’m tempted to just put something I’ve changed my mind on back wherever I happen to be I think of that and since there are no guys with blue fingers anymore, I usually take it back where I got it and return it to the shelf.  Usually!

Same with the grocery carts.  I sat one day outside of a store waiting on a friend that was meeting me.  I watched and counted the shoppers who returned their carts to the cart return area or back into the store.  Out of 16 people, only 6 walked the extra 30-40 feet to return the carts.  The rest looked around to see if anyone was watching and simply pushed them out of the way of their own car so they could back out.  They didn’t stop to think that the loose cart might blow into a persons car and chip the paint.  Or roll out to the street and create a hazard. 

What a wonderful world it would be if everyone took responsibility for their actions and stopped to think how the things they do affect others.  To the mother who threw out the bag of McDonalds trash, as I left Church and drove back the same way home, there was a dog in the middle of the road going through your sack of trash.  I watched as a car swerved to miss him as he suddenly lost interest in the sack in the middle of the road and darted in front of it. I swerved to miss the car that swerved.  Not only could someone’s pet been sacrificed for your lack of respect, but 2 cars could have collided. 

One day driving down the road years ago  one of my kids rolled down their window and threw out and apple core.  I remember pulling over and saying what on earth were you thinking.  The explanation was something along the line of well its not littering if it eventually rots and goes back into the ground or a bird picks it up.  Good try!  I noticed last time I rode with my son that his car had a pretty large assortment of trash in the floorboard, the backseat, and under the seats.  My first inclination was to say, geez do you ever throw away your trash.  But I zipped my lips.  At least it was not on the middle of the road or the side of the street somewhere.  My litter lesson had apparently been  taken to heart.  The one on keeping your car clean….well not so much………but my car is not exactly an example of that so I can’t complain.

 Ok so that’s my rant of the day……I saw a sign somewhere the other day…it said if you use it, replace it, if you break it , repair it, if you take it, return it.  Good words to live by.

L