Welcome, Ven a gozar!

It was another trash collecting day at the park. Only this time the world or at least the park portion of it conspired; although I am not sure it was a conspiracy with negative connotations as the definition suggests. The weather is a little drizzly, so I did not want to spend any time outside getting wet. I did not want to pick up soggy trash either.

I decided that at 2 o’clock if it was still drizzling, I would stay indoors and do something worthwhile inside. Just before the appointed time the drizzle stopped, synchronicity in action. Okay, I get to go spend a quiet hour outside, but no trash today, it’s too wet and muddy.

As I am walking around the path I noticed trash on the ground was worse than usual. Too bad, I thought to myself feeling smug, I did not bring a bag. As conspiracies go there was not one bag, but three bags laying along the path. Ranging in size of a small grocery bag, to a big forty gallon trash bag I felt a little trapped by the park. I ignored the first bag, also the second bag, but the third bag was too much. I resigned myself to picking up some soggy trash today, synchronicity in action.

There was also a junior high school class out for PE about the same time using the park. I imagine that at least a few of the kids are guilty of dropping candy wrappers, and other assorted things they suddenly did not want while walking home. They and their teachers had a first hand view of someone picking up trash who was not part of the city bed and breakfast program. I thought this was a good learning experience for them, to see little elves do not come out early in the morning and clean up their trash for them.

One thought I had while walking and picking  put everything in perspective. In accelerated learning it is not important that the learner be actively engaged for the lesson to have an impact on them. They only have to be present and quiet when the lesson is given. Studies have found that in this state of mind we are at our most receptive even though from an observational view it looks as if we have checked out.

So these kids, and their teachers were being shown a small lesson in civic responsibility. Nothing as dramatic as the motivational movie, Pass It On as the scale is much smaller, but the idea applies all the same.

That led me to me wondering about other areas of our civic life, and our programming here in the United States. Somehow we have developed into a nation who think there are people who wander around behind us straightening up the mess we leave behind.

We throw our trash out the window of our cars because we are done eating whatever it was covering. Some of us can even find reasons to justify our actions. Along city streets where trash is prevalent, we walk past it knowing it is not our job to pick any of the trash up. Yet if you are anything like me, you are the first to complain about how unsightly an area looks, ironic as that sounds.

Rather than rambling on farther today, I thought I would end with what I thought is an interesting link. Between the blog entry and comments there is some food for thought about civic and personal responsibility. Here is a blog entry from the founding developer of Wordpress software on which my blog runs, and some replies. Hopefully you will find Mathew Mullenweg’s thoughts, and the replies interesting too. Someday civic responsibility may be a non-issue, but for now, your neighborhood needs your help.

Comments (0) Dec 01 2007