Communication ---it is the single most important skill we have developed as human beings and yet, we choose to use it only for nonsensical reasons sometimes instead of maximizing its potential. To wit: Yesterday, as I travel across the United States, I stopped into a McDonalds to have a meal and to use the free wifi that they so graciously provide for customers. I parked my cart/stroller/car up a small hill next to the restaurant, to avoid having it messed with by the interstate travellers. I went in, ordered my food and sat down to eat and to work on some internet stuff. When I ordered my food I told the young lady at the coiunter that I was travelling on foot and had parked my stroller on the hill, out of the way, in case she was wondering. She told me that it was not a problem, and I went off to enjoy my meal and do my work.
About an hour later, as I gave a glance toward my stroller, I noticed that a cop was checking it out. I hobbled outside and informed him that it was mine and why it was there. He immediately made me show ID, and then proceeded to order me to lock my fingers together on top of my head while he searched me, right there in front of the entire restaurant. It was humiliating, to say the least. He then informed me that the manager of the restaurant had called them about me and that I was going to be sleeping up there and that was not acceptable. The only problem was that I was not going to be sleeping there at all and had never made any kind of inference that I was. After I explained to the cop that I am a writer and walking for charity, he asked me to prove it. I gave him my card from WhyHunger and he accompanied me into the restaurant where I showed him the piece I was working on about my visit to Ave Maria Grotto, and when he saw that he apologized and left me to my work, but telling me that he thought that the managers of the restaurant would prefer I move on soon. I thanked him and ten minutes later I was outta there.
Before I left, I approached the managers and told them that I did not mean to cause them any alarm or concern, and that if they had just come to me and asked me to move the cart or to at least talk to me, since they knew full well whose cart it was, I would have been very happy to comply. The younger manager, a blonde woman in her 20’s, feebly explained that if corporate inspectors came by and saw the cart there they would have had a complaint. The other older gentleman manager just said nothing.
I told her, eye to eye that it would have saved a lot of embarrassment and possibly ill will if she had just communicated with me instead of calling the police. I think as Americans, and as human beings we deserve at least that much courtesy and respect.
Which brings me to the logical followup—it is Earth Day.
I remember the first Earth Day, when I was in the fifth or 6th grade, and our class all went outside with bags and cleaned up trash around the school. Its not a subject I think about much specifically but I do try to live an environmentally friendly existence. As I walk across these states I am shocked and appalled at the huge amount and variety of the garbage that people have tossed and dumped on these beautiful highways. Truly disgusting, to say the least.
A famous quote, attributed to Carl Sagan but actually by someone else, it is as accurate as any quote I know. I can’t believe how we shit in our own beds, to put it plainly. As I walk, I have seen everything from TV’s to discarded diapers, full of human waste and much more. As I walked through a forest preserve here in Alabama a week ago, I was amazed at how much trash there was in the pine barrens that I passed. People had backed trucks into open spaces and dumped tons of crap and trash there and just drove away. What was really amazing to me was the fact that I walked through there for an entire day and only saw maybe ten cars.
So, to sum up, as I get ready to hit the road for another day of adventure, unsure of where I will next find wifi, I say to you: Treat the earth as if it the most precious asset you have. Treat the people you love twice as good as that, and tell them that you love them, every day. Love for each other and for the planet that allows us to live on it. How much more do you need?
Oh, and by the way, I am sitting in THAT McDonalds as I type this. Heh heh.
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