The World is My Ashtray

I have mentioned in past blogs about the things I see at the side of the road when I am walking the dog. I’ve seen broken cell phones, money, different assorted tools, socks and underwear, construction materials, cans and bottles, identity cards, school work, broken ear buds, and the list just goes on and on.

 

I suppose that as long as there are people there will be garbage at the side of roads. Les Stroud “The Survivor Man” http://lesstroud.ca/survivorman/episodes.php has said that there is no where in the world that you can’t find garbage that may be helpful for your survival in the wilderness. That is great if you find yourself in a life or death survival situation, but if you are like 99.9999999% of us it is just disgusting. There is garbage everywhere!

Today Buster and I saw the top half of an uncooked chicken on the road. The top had been separated from the bottom and of course was covered in road grit. There was no packaging around, but about twenty yards up the road there was the bottom half. I would love to know why someone ripped a chicken in half and then threw it out the window. That is one crazy son-of-a-bitch. Buster didn’t give a shit about the whys, he just wanted to eat the raw chicken. I don’t have an explanation and Buster didn’t get chicken for breakfast.

 

I remember back when I was a teenager, one of my best friends tossed his empty cigarette pack on the ground. I said “Ken, you should pick up the garbage, we have to save the planet.” Well, I sound pretty anal there, but what ever I said, I some how conveyed that he should toss the garbage in the garbage bin that was three feet away. He told me he wouldn’t be that thoughtless. “Huh?”

“Look at it this way. If I didn’t toss my empty smoke pack on the ground and put it in the bin, I would be depriving someone of a job. The guy that doesn’t have a job will start drinking and may become abusive to his wife. He wouldn’t be able to feed his family and there is a very good chance his daughter will have to go into prostitution just to feed her self. His son will more that likely get into petty crime or start to deal drugs that will eventually lead to someone’s death. When you think about it, by tossing my garbage on the ground, I just prevented a man from becoming a drunk and beating his wife, kept a young girl from prostitution, stopped a young man from becoming a habitual criminal and saved the lives of countless potential drug users that won’t overdose because I tossed my garbage three feet from the bin.”

 

Ken just smiled a Cheshire cat kind of smile and blew a perfect smoke ring. I knew there was a flaw in his reasoning, but for the life of me, at that point in time it eluded me. It may have been due to having smoked some wine or just that after his speech I really didn’t care anymore. Ken turned and walked away while I bent over and picked up the empty cigarette package and tossed it in the bin. I understood the reasoning, but it is still garbage on the ground.

When I caught up to Ken he looked at me with that smile of his and said “The world is my ashtray!”