It's Earth Day and Ring Around the Basin is reposting some poems to celebrate. Just click on the titles if you want to see the original postings. One includes an article explaining the poem’s inspiration. photo by Jeff Cauhape Last summer, our desert landscape exploded with a beautiful super-bloom. While jeeping around to see it, we met an elderly woman walking alone and stopped for a chat.
A perfect juxtaposition of these three laments, Sue. Beautifully written. What kind of people blithely toss out their trash to mar the natural landscape? It is beyond me how they rationalize it. In the campground of the small, but glorious Pinnacles National Park in California one night, I overheard this shout, through a loud blaring of metal music from a campsite near by: " Oh yeah? Well, it is my world too and I will litter it if I want to!" It was horrifying to me that people living in / visiting this beautiful natural setting could feel that that way. That was over 50 years ago. I never forgot it. One hopes things will change, but alas, there is so much ignorance and selfishness out there. Bleak? Cynical? Yes, certainly. Sorry. You got me riled again!
Good, we should be a little riled. But only a little; otherwise anger kills. Meanwhile, pardon me for my prejudices, but I've discovered there are some cultures that litter just as a matter of course. "Oh, I don't need this envelope." And the envelope falls to the floor. I actually saw this in the home of a friend and his Central American wife, both of whom are well-educated, technically savvy people. But there's paper and other similar stuff collecting on the floors of their beautiful new house. W.T.F! I can understand old, fixed-income people whose yard and home becomes a litter disaster area. And the kids toys, etc., stored in the yard. Garbage disposal companies, especially the privately-owned ones, extort people with high prices to dump their stuff. Our county landfill charges more reasonable rates and indicates which pile of debris they want us to dump because they sell and recycle a lot of things. I've gone off topic perhaps, but the above-mentioned attitude of tossing the daily mail on the floor translates into people who come to our resort areas and National Parks. I guess we need to bring back the old little campaign ads.
I really enjoyed the twist in the tissue.
That was indeed a silly moment.
A perfect juxtaposition of these three laments, Sue. Beautifully written. What kind of people blithely toss out their trash to mar the natural landscape? It is beyond me how they rationalize it. In the campground of the small, but glorious Pinnacles National Park in California one night, I overheard this shout, through a loud blaring of metal music from a campsite near by: " Oh yeah? Well, it is my world too and I will litter it if I want to!" It was horrifying to me that people living in / visiting this beautiful natural setting could feel that that way. That was over 50 years ago. I never forgot it. One hopes things will change, but alas, there is so much ignorance and selfishness out there. Bleak? Cynical? Yes, certainly. Sorry. You got me riled again!
Good, we should be a little riled. But only a little; otherwise anger kills. Meanwhile, pardon me for my prejudices, but I've discovered there are some cultures that litter just as a matter of course. "Oh, I don't need this envelope." And the envelope falls to the floor. I actually saw this in the home of a friend and his Central American wife, both of whom are well-educated, technically savvy people. But there's paper and other similar stuff collecting on the floors of their beautiful new house. W.T.F! I can understand old, fixed-income people whose yard and home becomes a litter disaster area. And the kids toys, etc., stored in the yard. Garbage disposal companies, especially the privately-owned ones, extort people with high prices to dump their stuff. Our county landfill charges more reasonable rates and indicates which pile of debris they want us to dump because they sell and recycle a lot of things. I've gone off topic perhaps, but the above-mentioned attitude of tossing the daily mail on the floor translates into people who come to our resort areas and National Parks. I guess we need to bring back the old little campaign ads.
Lovely verses, lovely lady. I avoid chasing tissues and having them gum up the wash by using handkerchiefs.