What really stuck to my head during that experience was one
thing I saw while we were wrestling crocodiles…
We were stranded one night on this large waiting area. We
weren’t waiting for a vehicle to arrive, since both of us could fly. But we
were waiting for the rain to stop, and the flood to subside. The floor was
dirty, littered by so many wet and muddy trash. We simply hovered over them,
but every other human had to step on the filth.
It was a normal sight, ‘cause everything seems polluted
nowadays. These days, every clean and organized place seemed like paradise-a
rare and elusive paradise.
I’ve grown used to places like that. Ever since Dev and I
flew back to Earth, everything has been…well, polluted. But what I saw was much
more surprising.
A man standing near us was smoking a cigarette, not caring
at all about the people around him. His only concern was that his ride home has
not yet arrived, and the rain was unstoppable. Then this vehicle came, backing
towards him, inviting him to enter. He did, but before stepping inside he
flicked his cigarette to the muddy floor and stepped on it. He then stepped
inside, and the vehicle left.
It’s as if nothing happened. And I’ve seen scenes like this
before. I’ve seen men who acted like him before. The only reason this particular
scenario stuck to me, was because right after the man left, I looked at the
floor…right at the cigarette he had tossed a couple of seconds ago. It was wet
and muddy-just like all the other trash. For a reason, it seemed to me that the
cigarette had been there for so long. It was as if it had been there as long as
all the other trash that littered the place.
From a fresh cigarette, being smoked inside that man’s
mouth, to a piece of litter that blended perfectly in the dirty background… the
transformation only took seconds. He flicked it, stepped on it, and the
cigarette was gone. No one is ever going to notice that on the floor,
especially if you’re like me who have grown used to these places. If I hadn’t
seen what happened, I would never have noticed that trash either.
Now, after staring at this new addition to global warming, I
looked around me and saw the whole picture. Trash was everywhere, but I saw it
differently this time. How many people did all of this? How many people flicked
away a single used product and turned it into garbage? How many contributed to
this mess? If every trash I saw was thrown by one person each, how many have
committed a simple crime against nature? Their efforts have somehow been
accumulated and the damage has been made bigger.
It’s okay to enjoy life’s pleasures, but why be selfish
afterwards and let the world suffer for our negligence?
How many negligent people live in this world? Are you one of
them?
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