This precious earth

I can remember a public service announcement when I was young that showed people driving around littering the highways. Meanwhile a Native American is seen paddling ashore and walking through the trash. As more garbage is thrown at his feet, he turns his head in the direction of the camera and you see a tear coming down his cheek. Many of you will remember that tv spot too.  It was moving and it got the message across.  People caused pollution then and they still do today.

It isn’t just littering and polluting that I am talking about. There seems to be a lack of care about this planet of ours by many.  I do not have the right to desecrate the parks, streets, hills, streams, neighborhoods, and the land that others have called home. It is not just a hunk of land – there are memories that are precious to others, even if not to me. We all need to be stewards of this planet – of our neighborhoods and all the areas that connect them.

The words below are from a very wise man. They are part of Chief Seattle’s response to the Government’s offer to purchase the remaining Seattle Land. The chief began by saying they would ponder the proposition and let the government know. Then he went on to say “Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as they swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch. Our departed braves, fond mothers, glad, happy hearted maidens, and even the little children who lived here and rejoiced here for a brief season, will love these somber solitudes and at eventide they greet shadowy returning spirits.”

Yesterday was Earth Day, but it need not be confined to just a single day.  Let us daily all renew our care for this fragile planet we call home. If we start thinking of how precious this earth is to others, hopefully it will become more precious to each of us.