Day 174 - November 19, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2.1 pounds

682.2 pounds total
I try to go running on the beach. Before I set out, I tell myself that it is OK if I run past some of the trash that I see along the way. I reassure myself that, "I do enough!" I can enjoy a little half hour run without feeling guilty!

But I can't get very far.

I'll run past some things, and then something will catch my eye, like a boogie board leash, and I think oh man, I have to get that! Think of the damage that loose, plastic rope could do to some animal or sea bird? SO I pick it up.

Then I pick up a big plastic bag. Perhaps after I have ran past a few smaller items since I now feel off the hook by having the boogie board leash in my hand. I mean, how many people do you see running with trash in their hands?

SO I pass a Cheetos bag, or a water bottle. But then I see another piece of litter I just can't go by. Now my hands are full. This means I then have to run to the beach trash cans, (and I hate using those...it just feels wrong to throw something away there, like there it has a higher likelihood of escaping the open top confines and sprinting back to the ocean. I'm revealing my fanaticism, aren't I?)

Anyhow, I get to the can, I'm completely winded from the run in the loose, dry sand, and inevitably I just head back to the bike path away from the beach because I just can't take the multiple treks back to the trash can thru the dry sand that I know are coming if I carry on at the water's edge. One part lazy, two parts?

Maybe it's as simple as not being able to run away from caring.

I found so many of these today. It made me think about the bill that got killed last year in the CA State Senate - SB #something-or-other - was a law to leash your lid to the bottle.

Kind of like how we used to pull the top off of the aluminum cans until someone figured out how to leave them attached by just pushing them under. We have the technology now to do the same for bottles. There is a man, with his factory all geared up and ready to go, in South Carolina that has the technology in place.

Now we just need the willingness to change.
I wish people who came to the beach to enjoy a joint would just put this damned plastic tip in their pocket after they've rolled their blunt. Did I just write blunt like I use that word in my everyday life?

Well, I don't.

But when I see "Philly Blunt" wrappers, and cigarillo plastic stubs, I'm not too old to figure it out that they ain't smoking cigars out here.

So BEFORE you smoke pot on the beach by rolling it in the cigar paper that is usually attached to this little plastic nubbins - try, PLEASE try to put that thing in your pocket before you light up. Please?
And then take this wrapper with you after you've satisfied your munchies. I can't believe I am writing this. I think it is funny right now, but maybe I should rethink this post before I publish it?

I'm not condoning getting stoned, but if I were to get baked, (clearly I'm in 10th grade again) the beach is a great place to do it. Which brings me to an interesting point.

We can't stop people from doing what they are going to do. We can try, (and all of this is my silly opinion now), we can make sweeping changes by implementing laws, fines, and the like but folks are going to do what they want.

Prohibition anyone? (by the way...you MUST watch Boardwalk Empire. I'm just saying. HBO. Brilliant!)

I just want to advocate for cleaning up after ourselves once we've gotten what we came for. To enjoy a spectacular sunset, a place to hang with your family, a spot to sit quietly by yourself. It strikes me as a way to sort of pay that place back by leaving it as it was when you came, or making it even better. What has gotten into me today with the preachy preach stuff?? Apologies.

From left to right: Ross (producer and sound engineer), Brett - D.P. extraordinaire & Destin - Director

Destin Cretton and crew out on the beach to shoot a short for the Sundance channel. Destin won best Short in last year's Sundance festival for Short Term 12. And if I am not mistaken, the congratulations extends to all three of them since I think everyone in this shot was part of that production. I know great things await for these uber cool, creative guys with easy going outlooks and passions galore for what they want to do in the challenging world of film.