Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CAtrash collected for 20 minutes
estimated pounds of trash collected today - 6.4
estimated pounds of trash collected to date - 239.4
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I have spent the last three days attending the SCBWI (Society for Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators) conference here in Los Angeles. I probably don't need to mention that I am full of inspiration, and completely brain fried. When I collected last night, I went a little wild with the photos and writing. This post will be longer than usual.
The beach is something you can interact with. It has a personality the way other environments may not. Sure mountains have snow, breezes blowing through tall trees, and other ways to interact with them. Sand moves in the desert, but the ocean has an immediate interaction with you when you step up to the waves and let them lap over your feet. That edge between sand and water is an unexpected world that can send you reeling back, knee deep in water that you thought would only be toe high. Enter further and it's a doorway to a new world. You are no longer a land creature, trading your sure feet for floating uncertainty.
This foot print happened as I was taking the photo of just the bag for my, "How many plastic bags can I photograph in 20 minutes?" game. Let me explain. I am aware that this blog is and will be repetitive, maybe even redundant. I think this sometime in the first five minutes of every collection. My thought process goes something like this, "How am I going to keep this interesting? If I see one more straw...People will be bored with this whole thing, I am, oh joy, another cigarette butt." Then I had an AH-HA moment. What if I tried to make a game out of seeing how many pieces of a certain kind of trash I could collect at one time. I know, it sounds like a demented game, but stay with me a moment longer. Maybe one day it would be straws. See how many I can collect, and take a picture of every one of them. Sure, those reading would scroll through ten pictures of nearly identical straws, but isn't that the point? The repetitiveness, the ridiculous nature of drenching our beaches in candy wrappers and plastic bottles over and over again?
Not a diaper and a bottle that our children need. Diapers, like band-aids, come off in the water. Why do we leave them on while taking our toddlers into the ocean?
Birds at the beach do what we do. They stand and play at that line of wave and sand. They fly up, like we step back, run away to keep from getting soaked. Except they also eat there, like we do not. We wouldn't like to sit at our table with a diaper, let's not leave one on theirs.
List of good things I saw at the beach today -
I have spent the last three days attending the SCBWI (Society for Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators) conference here in Los Angeles. I probably don't need to mention that I am full of inspiration, and completely brain fried. When I collected last night, I went a little wild with the photos and writing. This post will be longer than usual. 
The beach is something you can interact with. It has a personality the way other environments may not. Sure mountains have snow, breezes blowing through tall trees, and other ways to interact with them. Sand moves in the desert, but the ocean has an immediate interaction with you when you step up to the waves and let them lap over your feet. That edge between sand and water is an unexpected world that can send you reeling back, knee deep in water that you thought would only be toe high. Enter further and it's a doorway to a new world. You are no longer a land creature, trading your sure feet for floating uncertainty. 
This foot print happened as I was taking the photo of just the bag for my, "How many plastic bags can I photograph in 20 minutes?" game. Let me explain. I am aware that this blog is and will be repetitive, maybe even redundant. I think this sometime in the first five minutes of every collection. My thought process goes something like this, "How am I going to keep this interesting? If I see one more straw...People will be bored with this whole thing, I am, oh joy, another cigarette butt." Then I had an AH-HA moment. What if I tried to make a game out of seeing how many pieces of a certain kind of trash I could collect at one time. I know, it sounds like a demented game, but stay with me a moment longer. Maybe one day it would be straws. See how many I can collect, and take a picture of every one of them. Sure, those reading would scroll through ten pictures of nearly identical straws, but isn't that the point? The repetitiveness, the ridiculous nature of drenching our beaches in candy wrappers and plastic bottles over and over again?
Not a diaper and a bottle that our children need. Diapers, like band-aids, come off in the water. Why do we leave them on while taking our toddlers into the ocean?
Birds at the beach do what we do. They stand and play at that line of wave and sand. They fly up, like we step back, run away to keep from getting soaked. Except they also eat there, like we do not. We wouldn't like to sit at our table with a diaper, let's not leave one on theirs. 
List of good things I saw at the beach today - - A little girl planting her feet in the sand to see how deep they'll sink as a wave recedes.
- A boy of about 10 lying belly down in the sand pretending to be a sea turtle.
- A mother taking pictures of her children which will someday become their baby pictures at the beach.
If I had a wish for today it would be to remember what you felt like when you were a kid at the beach, (that is if you liked the beach then, or maybe you're still a kid, but I'm assuming if you've read this far, you like the beach). The wonderment and play that takes place there. Remember that and more so that we can work towards saving this place for future generations to experience the same amazing afternoons there that we had. Sand Dollars are more fun to discover than tampons, seriously.
If I had a wish for today it would be to remember what you felt like when you were a kid at the beach, (that is if you liked the beach then, or maybe you're still a kid, but I'm assuming if you've read this far, you like the beach). The wonderment and play that takes place there. Remember that and more so that we can work towards saving this place for future generations to experience the same amazing afternoons there that we had. Sand Dollars are more fun to discover than tampons, seriously. 
This is hugely important work...bravo!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Ben!
ReplyDelete