Litter Bugs

You probably never litter. Or, maybe it’s just been a while since you last tossed a coke can out the window. Or, maybe it’s your practice to litter all of the time, throwing cigarette butts, McDonald’s bags and beer cans along U.S. 1 and A1A. Maybe it was you that I saw just the other day.

We were headed into downtown. We were stopped on the bridge. I was behind you. You were driving a Honda sedan. I saw you holding the cigarette near the tinted open window. And I thought to myself: “Surely she won’t throw the butt on the road” — though I knew it to be a distinct possibility because I pick up trash on Pope Road and cigarette butts are the most prevalent form of litter.

My optimism was shattered: you took one more drag of your stick and then flicked the cig onto the pavement. I’ve been wondering how many ciggy’s you’ve deposited on our roadways and beaches. And since you don’t mind throwing butts out the window of your ride, maybe you’re the one who throws 46 ounce Styrofoam cups onto A1A. I’m not an environmental warrior. But I do think the old Native American proverb is accurate: “We do not inherit the EARTH from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

OK, OK. I will stop pointing my finger. I know that it’s not nice. And besides, Jesus has said: “Do not judge lest you be judged.” Nonetheless, I’m very frustrated with litter bugs.

In graduate school I studied the psychologist Carl Jung. Jung once wrote: “The thing that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” I believe this nugget of truth. I know that littering is one of the things that irritates me, but I’m still wrestling with what it is supposed to teach me about myself. Maybe I’m supposed to learn that I shouldn’t judge litterbugs. Because that’s what I do. I judged you when you threw the butt out of your Honda window. And I know I shouldn’t judge you. It’s like Mother Theresa once said: “If you’re judging people you have no time to love them.”

Be that as it may, and as a student of ancient Greek philosophy, I think the oft-quoted statement by Euripides bears repeating here: “Judge a tree by its fruit.”

Euripides, Jesus and Mother Theresa have to be held in tension, I think. After all, it’s impossible not to evaluate people’s actions. If we don’t evaluate — judge — people’s actions, and our own actions, how would we ever know that littering is not the right way to live in community?

So, on the one hand, I owe you, dear litter bug, an apology for judging your public untidiness. But, on the other hand, I love you enough to tell you that your behavior is inappropriate.