Publications
in the "Pioneer" Newspaper :: 2006,FEBRUARY
Published in the "Pioneer" February Newspaper - Big Rapids, Michigan
I couldn't quite believe my eyes. I was simply waiting for Dale to exchange dollars for ghriviins and there it lay! The display of its simple arrangement was quite startling and I simply asked Dale to take a picture of it. It was really stunning! Not because it was beautiful, or distinct but because of what it contained. Simple garbage lying on the street that spoke of the state of what some would call the "greedy great ape!"
A mound of exhaust blackened snow, with a banana peel frozen to sort of a transparent yellow, an empty cigarette pack and hundreds of brown edged cigarette butts lying in profusion. That is what I am talking about. I actually stared at this work of art that had been contributed to by many passing souls. There it lay in all of its quiet oblivion, that is, until I came along.
It could have simply gone unnoticed for the next weeks. Or it may have become covered up with another good amount of snow that is predicted for this weekend. One thing is for sure… NO ONE cleaned it up! And because of the very fact of its existence, no one really cared that it just laid there to rot until after the spring thaws when the yard lady would come along and very unceremoniously sweep it up with her "witches" broom of twigs and deposit it in the very nearby waste can.
The whole picture spoke of a design of thinking that somehow had gone dangerously out of control. One of the cigarette butts even had the imprints of lipstick on it suggesting maybe that the smoker was some lady of class who at least "put on her face" everyday, a normal activity for the ladies of our region. The banana peel suggests that someone is concerned enough about their health to eat a healthy snack. Banana's cost a bit higher than most fruit this time of season so to buy one requires forethought.
The fact that all of this stuff laid there on the street with the trash container not a meter away gives us the impression also that there are some mindless activities that take place on a daily if not minute to minute basis. There are things that we do… IF we thought about it we simply wouldn't do. But in a moment there lays the results, and out of sheer seared consciences or empty headedness we walk away as if it didn't matter. We may even shift the responsibility for the act to the yard lady saying "it really is her job anyway."
Trash lying on the street in the intense proportions I viewed in that one meter section street I was looking at, is a signal of poverty. Poverty of soul, poverty of spirit, poverty of thinking that leaves an imprint as it passes by. The evidence of this poverty is everywhere on the streets, in the alleys, on the trams, in people's houses, on the TV over the airwaves….. TRASH everywhere! Everyone thinking that it simply doesn't show or matter!
But there really is a Spirit of Excellence! Not one born out of pride for something. But a spirit of humility that serves, in the best way possible, because I have a life given to me that I didn't create. This spirit of excellence defines my actions! Also it gives boundaries to my thinking! It really does matter what I am seen doing! It really does matter what I fed my mind and as a consequence what I feed the air and the land in which I physically live.
You see IF I was the only person on the earth there would simply be an audience of one to whom I would be responsible. That sort of thinking needs to be more of a foundation of thinking here in the Ukraine and the USA also. Trash is trash. BUT Trash has its place!!!!!
Beth Boehs
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