You Stink and I Don’t Love You!
Well, I like the weather here. I can say that.
Being in the States for 2 weeks did not fix my attitude. It did make me aware of how small-minded and self-centered the average American is. It did make me painfully aware of how high gas prices are there. It did remind me that cold weather sucks.
But it made me know that I need to go home, back to the States, back to a place where people pick up their fucking garbage!
I’m sorry if this sounds small-minded of me. But if you can’t respect the earth enough to pick up your fricking garbage then I really have trouble respecting you and I strongly suspect that you don’t respect yourself either.
I run. I’ve run 4 times a week for 19 years. I don’t run far, or fast. But I run where ever I am, mostly regardless of weather. So in Maine I marked out some distances for myself so I would know how far I was running.
While staying at Mom’s house I ran on dirt roads with just a few summer houses on them. I saw no garbage on the sides of the road during my runs. One day I saw a squished garter snake that had been run over. And I saw a lot of acorns that had fallen in the road. If I kicked them while I was running they would spin wildly around in the road which was pretty.
While staying at my sister’s house I would run on the “main” road through town. But given how dinky and out of the way her town is, well, this road has only about one car going by every 5 minutes. It’s paved and hilly and largely shaded, so it’s nice running. [I’d forgotten how much I love running uphill…] So one day I decided to count the number of pieces of garbage I saw in the ditches on either side of this road.
The answer is 4. I saw 4 pieces of garbage over a 1½ mile stretch of road. There were 2 soda cans which had clearly been chucked into the bushes. There was an empty brake fluid bottle that might have been tossed deliberately or could have blown from the back of one of the ever-present pick-up trucks that go by there. And the 4th item was a lamp cord in the middle of the road, which obviously just fell from a truck and wasn’t deliberate litter.
So last night, after I got home from the States, husbandito and I went to walk the dog. By the time I had told him my garbage-counting story we had passed more garbage in the street than I could possibly count.
Yuck.
July 18th, 2008 22:46
I have a hard time computing that garbage in the street is worse than shitty, freezing weather, gas in the $4 to $5 range, and small minded and self-centered people. That last one I probably wouldn’t completely agree with, I think that kind of person is too common everywhere but they are outweighed by those wonderful and kind people that also exist. The first one though, I would never, ever consider having to deal with.
This does remind me of an old belief of mine that you pick your friends for their faults because anyone can like their good points but if their faults just drive you nuts then you can never be friends. I think it is also true for locations. Some stuff just drives us nuts and no matter the balance or the good points, it just isn’t a good fit.
I would never live where it snowed, it is a fault that I could not get over no matter how wonderful anything else was. It’s a deal breaker. So, maybe the trash is a deal breaker for you and I understand that it is just not negotiable.
It matters not how I or others might think it is getting better just like it matters not to me that people say they just bundle up or that it is pretty. Not to me, snow is best viewed on a postcard or calendar it is never pretty in person just dangerous and cold. For you, garbage is best never viewed on the road while I have learned to just look away and see the beauty around it.
It’s a tough one RG, a very hard decision and I hope you have the time and the patience to figure out what is right for you. Best wishes to you.
July 20th, 2008 21:15
Totally agree. I can’t believe the trash I see in Houston compared to 20 years ago. People just do not care anymore.
July 21st, 2008 08:06
Jonna – Well we’ve opened a can of worms. Imho Mexicans as often as small minded as Americans. And imho high gas prices are exactly what’s needed to force Americans to wake up to the reality that they can’t dominate the world’s resources they way they have and that they need to get innovative about using alternative energy. Mexico’s gas prices are artificially low, which I enjoy, but think is fundamentally a bad thing. Mexico is 20 years away from embracing alternative energy and cheap gas is part of the reason.
Along the front range in Colorado people play tennis year round. It snows and then evaporates within hours or a couple of days. I can deal with that. It’s not at all like the months of snow on the ground that you get in New England. I don’t like the cold but the snow in Colorado doesn’t bother me.
The way people litter in Mexico, and they way no one picks up the litter, indicates a lack of respect for the earth which makes me sick to my stomach. To me the garbage everywhere is evidence of a greed and a selfishness in the culture that I can’t ignore. There is no such thing as “for the common good” here, instead Mexico is full of people who can’t afford to care about anything or anyone outside their own family.
I can’t pretend that I think Mexico is a healthy place to live, it’s not. It’s got nice weather though.
I’m not saying the U.S. is a great place to live, or that it’s somehow “better” than Mexico. But I feel more empowered to make a positive impact on the world when I am there than I do when I am in Mexico. And that’s important to me. Also, my daughter is there and I need to be there with her.