The Ignorance Of Blatant Littering

I was driving home the other day in some relatively mild local traffic when I saw a person riding a bike alongside the road drinking one of those huge cups of soda from one of the local gas stations. I’m not sure why I even paid attention to them in the first place, but I definitely did notice one thing with them that saddened me greatly. I watched as they took the last gulp of their drink from their very large cup and then throw it on the ground as they continued on their way.

I always wonder how and why so much trash ends up littering our roadsides and frankly, our planet for that matter. But lately, I seem to be paying attention a lot more to things like this around me and have seen plenty of others do the same by throwing their garbage out their car windows, or leaving it in parking lots where they had previously parked, or even making an attempt to use trash receptacles, only to see their trash miss and fall to the ground, and then leaving it there anyway.

I think what was most disturbing about this bicyclist’s specific act of littering was the fact that he was riding into a parking lot of another convenience store where several trash receptacles were a mere few feet away from him. As I drove away, I wondered about the thinking or lack of thinking that went in his action.

There are a lot of problems like this happening all around us, some of which are far out of our control. But throwing our trash away is something we all can do, yet so often, so many litter with no respect for our environment. This is one behavior I must say I don’t engage in, probably because my parents taught me well to respect the environment I live in. But so many others don’t. They don’t see how a cup thrown on the ground or leaving various other trash behind can lead to a butterfly effect of problems in society.

Take one of our larger waterways for example. I live near one of them, Lake Erie, where sadly, many boaters on a daily basis will throw their trash overboard while out fishing and having fun on the water. Plenty of animals and ecosystems end up suffering because of this. Water gets polluted, then potential food for us dies, tax dollars’ increase because of the clean-ups that have to take place from littering, and so on and so forth. All because of a lack of understanding and caring that usually comes with those who litter.

Here’s a great scenario. Takes the simplest scene of those plastic pieces that hold a six pack together. When left in the environment, animals consume or get stuck in them and die. Now imagine that any of those animals have families that are now left behind, starving, and they die too. Now reverse it and imagine the same thing happening to one of us and our families being left behind because we die from something we got “tangled up in” by someone else’s blatant ignorance. It feels different doesn’t it, when we are directly affected. But littering often is a direct impact, it’s more of an indirect one that eventually takes its toll on all of us farther down the road.

It’s truly sad how people don’t see how everything is connected on this planet, even as small as throwing a cup down on the ground. But hopefully one day we all will. Hopefully one day we all might start having a lot more respect for a planet that God has blessed us with, rather than continue to abuse her in so many ways…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Relating To Cutters And Control

I’ve never done the act of cutting myself, which is the process of where a person takes a sharp object such as a razor blade and places small incisions on parts of their body and subsequently watches them bleed, all for the purposes of relieving emotional pain they are feeling inside. While I may never have done that act specifically, I can still relate to those that have because at times I find myself picking at spots on parts of my body, trying to remove them, usually with little to no success, and instead causing nothing more than me bleeding from a self-inflicted wound. So why do I do this? And how does this relate to what a cutter may go through? Well ultimately I feel it comes down to control and sheer frustration over the emotions going on within.

You see in my case, I’ve been going through an ordeal with my health and healing for some time now. For whatever the reason, my journey to greater health has been a difficult one where my body constantly seems to be going through very painful transitions to get there. While I have gotten better in some areas, others are taking far longer than I’d like and sometimes I just get so frustrated by the emotional despair I feel inside over that. When I do, I occasionally have found myself suddenly picking at things I can see on the outside of me in an attempt to control some part of the healing process I’m going through.

Just the other day for example, I had been really struggling with my level of physical pain when I saw a few spots on my back in the mirror that were most likely signs of aging. But they overwhelmed me so much that I started digging at them with my fingernail, trying desperately to remove them, only to cause more problems for myself. And where I ended up after that was me crying profusely and praying to God for relief from all that I’ve been going through. On some level, the act created a release point for all the pent up frustration I felt inside in that moment.

Why I feel like this relates to a cutter is only for the fact that I’ve known a few of them over the years. Take this person I once knew who used to cut themselves after engaging in homosexual contact. Deep down they didn’t know how to reconcile the pain they had over their sexual identity or the fact that they had been molested at a pretty young age. So every time they had a gay sexual encounter, their emotional imbalance over that part of themselves would surface. They then would often begin cutting themselves because it was the only way they knew how to control and release the emotional pain they felt inside.

So as in this person’s case or in mine, it comes down to acts of control. I tend to believe the only remedy for that is to let go and let God and some days I’m better at doing that than others.  But ultimately I know that whether it’s cutting, picking or hurting oneself in any way, shape, or form, it’s never a healthy action.

It’s pretty humbling for me to write about this and how my own actions relate to those who cut themselves, but when you’ve endured physical pain for as long as I have, the emotions run pretty high inside. Yet I know that cutting oneself or even picking at things on the body to the point of bleeding is not even close to an act of unconditional love. Truly it is actually the exact opposite of that. And I know it’s something God is probably sad about every time He sees it happen with anyone.

This is why I have compassion now for even those who cut themselves. Because those that do, must have some pretty deep-seated pain to drive them to that act. Thus it’s my prayer and hope that anyone who is inflicting any pain to themselves no matter how small it is, finds solace in God, because ultimately, I know that has been the only healthy solution I’ve found to help me release my own pain…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson