The remainder of the time each day was spent raiding the refrigerator and taking a brisk two or three mile walk on the beach. The weather was nice, and the walking was fine. I couldn't help but notice, though, that some folks seem to think of the beach in the same way they think of the side of the road, imagining it to be a large trash receptacle.
I decided to work a "random act of kindness" into my walk each day, and took along a plastic bag to collect garbage along the way. I noticed one other man dragging a sandy plastic bag from the water's edge, but his expression suggested he was really mad about it. I was determined to make it a joyful act, so I consciously smiled every time I picked up some bit of human-spawned detritus.
I smiled a lot.
On Sunday afternoon I collected a half dozen grungy tennis balls, three styrofoam coffee cups, an assortment of paper towels and baby wipes, three pages from a newspaper, several yucky plastic bags, and a few candy wrappers to go with a handful of cigarette butts and random bits of plastic, mostly nose cones or fins from fireworks fired over the ocean.
Given that my walk was interrupted by periodic pick-up pauses, I'm not sure if I got the same cardiac benefit as usual, but I'm certain that it did my heart good.
5 comments:
Some say a positive attitude is similar in health benefit to a good cardiovascular workout. Helping didn't hurt you, I suspect.
Hurrah to you for this. I am your fellow human being who picks up litter.
It was an interesting image of two people on the same mission. One seemed angry that the task was necessary; the other decided to be joyful. Now there's a parable! Too many Christians seem to approach our common mission as if they are being forced to clean up something disgusting. Now, there's a sermon waiting to be preached!
Yep, hurrah for you. It's so much better to pick up a piece of paper on the ground than it is to walk on by it and curse or else think some other bad comment about it being there. If you just pick it up, it won't continue to bother you, like it will every time you pass it by without picking it up.
I learned this while walking on my street.
I was once playing one of those "what if..." games and the question came up about what I would do if I could be invisible for a specific length of time. My answer was to stand on the corner of a busy intersection and, when people stop when the light is red and dump out their ashtrays, to pick up the cigarette butts and throw them back in the car with them.
I know you're not looking for kudos, but I offer kudos nevertheless. If we could learn to take care of the small things, I think taking care of bigger issues would be much easier to tackle.
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