Making the world a better place if you can, as the song exhorts us to do, ain't so easy.
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| Altruistic Heroes Are Often Unappreciated |
You can of course do charity work or fund raising if you are so inclined, or even just give money yourself. Or maybe you can perform chores for your elderly neighbour's, such as shopping.
Personally I'm not attracted much to these options, and in any case I already make charitable donations, both directly to some charities, as well as via a couple of weekly and monthly lotteries. To be truthful, I don't actually want to meet recipients of my largesses in person (urgh ... tacky!), so if I'm going to reach out and touch someone's life, its going to have to be indirectly, and preferably in some group format.
After some pondering, I think that I hit upon the correct solution, which I will now share with you. As regular readers will know, I am now, and have been since January, taking a daily walk of about an hour and a few miles.
While on these walks I have taken to picking up rubbish, particularly plastic bottles, tin drinks cans, paper and miscellaneous polystyrene/plastic food wrappers, then depositing it in the under used waste receptacles, that our council tax funds pay for.
I don't pick up icky items such as doggy poop bags, or face masks, just 'dry' items. My daily walk passes six bins, and on average I deposit items in four of them every day. The load can be comprised solely of small items such as as crisp packets and chip containers, but equally can also be made up of 6 packs of empty beer bottles, abandoned in the roads and parks that I pass through or along.
Personally I'm not attracted much to these options, and in any case I already make charitable donations, both directly to some charities, as well as via a couple of weekly and monthly lotteries. To be truthful, I don't actually want to meet recipients of my largesses in person (urgh ... tacky!), so if I'm going to reach out and touch someone's life, its going to have to be indirectly, and preferably in some group format.
After some pondering, I think that I hit upon the correct solution, which I will now share with you. As regular readers will know, I am now, and have been since January, taking a daily walk of about an hour and a few miles.
While on these walks I have taken to picking up rubbish, particularly plastic bottles, tin drinks cans, paper and miscellaneous polystyrene/plastic food wrappers, then depositing it in the under used waste receptacles, that our council tax funds pay for.
I don't pick up icky items such as doggy poop bags, or face masks, just 'dry' items. My daily walk passes six bins, and on average I deposit items in four of them every day. The load can be comprised solely of small items such as as crisp packets and chip containers, but equally can also be made up of 6 packs of empty beer bottles, abandoned in the roads and parks that I pass through or along.
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| Litter Heroes Can Make A Difference .... |
But whatever the loads picked up, I leave my walk a better experience for all who follow me every day. I will never get any thanks for this daily altruistic act, but I have definitely touched the lives in a small way, of hundreds of people who walk in my footsteps every day.
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| Just An Average Rubbish Collection ..... |
And to give some idea as to what I am talking about, this is the halfway point collection about to be put in the bin (several cans, plastic bottles, food wrappers and sweet packets).... I went on to pick up five more cans and a couple of plastic bottles on the return leg which follows a partly different route. This is about the normal amount picked up and binned every day
And who knows, if I am wrong about an afterlife, then maybe this daily cleaning up of Gods creation, may be earning me some small brownie points towards entrance in heaven ... or at least against going to the other place!
So for very little personal effort and energy, I am actively making the world a better place, and so can you, if you simply do the same thing ... try it, its not hard and you feel better for it.
I used to pick up rubbish but it just kept coming, and I just gave up. People seem to want to live in crap these days.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I have also lost some enthusiasm. for similar reasons. It can be a bit depressing picking up the same four beer cans being thrown on the road, by the same person every night. Thanks for the comment ... maybe you'll regain your enthusiasm when the weather improves.
DeleteSadly after 2 years of picking up trash, I stopped doing it in November 2022. Like the anonymous commenter above, the sheer daily volume of rubbish never stopped coming. I now know how King Canute felt.
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