Litterbugs

I've never liked litterbugs. Remember the old commercial in which an American Indian was riding a horse along through a forest? The spot ends with a close-up of his face with a tear streaking down it. Then, if I remember rightly, the camera pulls back to show the area littered with junk and trash. It's ironic that the actor used is named Iron Eyes Cody. First, his eyes aren't iron--they leak with emotion. Second, we share the same name, and if the sentiment expressed in the commercial is his, we're alike in that feeling as well.

I remember sitting on the porch at home with my dad and uncles. They all smoked back in the '60s and '70s, and I'd see them smoke and smoke and then flick their cigarette butts out into the front yard. That bothered me. I think that, for a time, when I started smoking (at a young age), I probably did what I'd seen them do. But it wasn't long before I stopped that. If I were out somewhere, I'd crush or flick the heat off the end of the cigarette and put the butt an ashtray or trachcan. One of my pet peeves for a long time now is to see somebody throw down a cigarette in a parking lot before walking into a store. Better yet--or worse yet--think of those employees we've all seen who have to smoke outside now. They stand near the front door of the establishment where they work and smoke and then flip the butt out into the parking lot and go back inside. I wish I had the spirit of a long-ago friend named Danny O'Lannerty, who, when he saw somebody drop a cigarette out the window of her car at a traffic light, was known to get out of his car, go pick up the butt and hand it back to her--"You dropped this."

This past weekend, my wife and I were going somewhere and came upon a section of road littered with McDonalds. Right in the middle of the road was one of those large bags that probably came from the drive-thru window filled with a family meal. And all around was scattered a variety of sandwich cartons, french fries cups and burger wrapping paper. (I guess they kept their drinks in the car at least.) I can't imagine the mentality that would that would allow somebody to roll down the window and throw all that back out onto the road. This made my blood boil!

Recently I ran across this picture, an artist's rendering of what the Earth looks like from space with all the satellites and debris we've put up there. It reminds me of the area around a parking lot's storm drain after a hard rain. We often imagine Heaven as out there somewhere and our loved ones watching for us. But if this is what they see, I hope they're not looking? Think of the Creator looking on. Imagine God riding among the space junk, a tear streaking down the holy cheek.