Day 132 - July 21, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

9.2 pounds

538.1 pounds total

COMMUNITY COUNT - DAY 38 - ANITA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2.1 pounds

315 pounds total
Someone lost their STORM TROOPER! Well, I have him now. He didn't end up as sea gull food.

While reading a back issue of ORION magazine, I came across an article called, "50 SIMPLE WAYS TO GET OFF -- If you are in love with the world, fall in love with trying to save it." Some of the tone of the article didn't strike a chord with me, but I wanted to share a tid-bit or two that did.

"I WANT YOU TO MAKE THE TIME TO FIND WHAT OR WHOM YOU LOVE - WHETHER IT'S SALMON, STURGEON, A PATCH OF FOREST, SURVIVORS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, YOUR OWN INDIGENOUS TRADITION, MIGRATORY SONGBIRDS, CORAL REEFS, OR APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINTOPS - AND I WANT YOU TO DIG IN AND DEFEND YOUR BELOVED..."

- DERRICK JENSEN

"FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE IT SO THE WORLD - THE REAL, PHYSICAL WORLD - IS A BETTER PLACE BECAUSE YOU LIVED HERE."

- DERRICK JENSEN

After our 20 minutes of trash collecting my friend Anita said that it was harder to do this than she thought it would be. She mentioned that her quads hurt, although I usually find it's my back that takes the tweak of it all, but she also said, "It must be hard to enjoy walking along the beach if you did this enough."

And I thought about how I was happy that it was cloudy this week. It meant that not as many people would be out on the beach. That meant less trash streaming into the ocean. When I realized what I was thinking it made me a little bit sad.