Green Fireworks Shine the Brightest
As I pedaled through the drifting smoke after the fireworks this evening, I passed an entire family on bicycles. Dad led the way on a large bike with packs resembling saddlebags hanging on either side of the back wheel. Behind him the older child, a boy of about ten years of age, ambled along on his small mountain bike. Bringing up the rear was Mom on an adult bike with little sister, around five, pedaling merily along on a fascinating attachment which turned Mom’s bike into a sort of tandem bicycle.
This evening was the first time I rode my bike into the District. Why bother with the subway on the Fourth of July when you get there under your own power? Of course, Mother Nature reminded us that she was more powerful than any man-made stars we might set off that evening by drenching us twice while we sat on the Mall. You could almost hear her saying, “Sure, you may be able to make bright flashes and loud bangs, but have you ever been outside during a thunderstorm?”
Have you ever noticed that green fireworks shine the brightest? At every show I’ve seen, there are plenty of beautiful red stars, golden sparkles, and multicolored circles, but nothing ever shines brighter than those glorious green bursts that light up the entire night. In this environmentally conscious era it’s like another voice yelling in the night, “Green! Green! Green!” Pounding the message into our heads. Pounding. Pounding. Pounding.
Yet, for all the messages, do we really understand? In my trashcan right now: paper, couldn’t that be recycled? The plastic bags too. Styrofoam, why do we even use the stuff? Think about your daily activity, how much goes through our hands once and ends up in a landfill forever? Snack rappers, packaging, cans and bottles, bags, receipts?
That is the definition of a consumer society: touch once, throw away. Consume: use, trash, replace, repeat. Ever stopped to wonder why? What keeps us from being just more conscious of how much we waste? Maybe we can do a little better than this. Use a tupperware for your sandwich instead of that ziploc bag. Paper, plastic, glass, it can all be recycled. Take a canvas bag to the store for your groceries. It’s the little things that count.
You don’t have to go off the deep end and save your trash for an entire year. Though, really, if there were a few more “nuts” in the world, what would it hurt? People here in America like to “take care of the environment,” explore the national parks, preserve the wetlands. But what good is all that if we consume like gluttons at home? Yes, there are more important things in the world to deal with, but that’s really no excuse to not do what we can, now.
It’s funny that I think of this on Independence Day. Don’t misunderstand me, I love my country. Just sometimes I think we have a seriously distorted view of the world. When it comes to some things, like simple respect for the environment, there is an awful lot to learn. Perhaps we could start simply: bike to the fireworks instead of driving, like the family I passed tonight. Oh wait… I think they were foreign.
