Happy Earth Day 2010

Growing up in Rockaway Beach, NY,  I remember when the ocean got so polluted all the surfers got impetigo.  The shoreline was so filthy with medical waste the sand crabs gave up and disappeared. For years, if I saw someone liter the beach, I'd scream "Yo asshole! You just shit on God's face!!!" But the God of my understanding commands me to love my neighbor, so eventually I traded my big mouth for a wad of recycled trash bags. Few acts of love and service make me happier than casually patrolling the beach off-season, after a storm or holiday weekend, picking up everything that does not belong there; plastic bottles, broken glass, styrofoam cups,  beer cans, candy-wrappers, towels, shoes and debris dumped by boats. To misuse or mistreat any of God's gifts is a sin, an act that underscores profound separation from source. But most people don't intentionally trash the beach, pollute the rivers and willfully plunder God's creation. Most often, they just don't know; they aren't thinking.

The Surfrider organization (www.surfrider.org) has organized beach clean-ups for years, coast to coast, locally and globally. Whether organized or impromptu, collective or solitary, a beach clean-up can be a most rewarding spiritual practice. Young people are especially green-hearted, and that makes me happy every day. When we care for living things, loving God's creations as God loves us, it doesn't matter if we're Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists or Pagans; we're just here together, doing the next right thing.

Respect the Beach