It’s amazing what you can find when you dig down deep enough. Last weekend, as part of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association’s area stream cleanup initiative, coinciding with Nation
By John Dunphy, Managing Editor
At first, it seemed like there wasn’t going to be much for us to clean up. Lexi pointed out to me that another group had organized a cleanup of its own in April. On top of that, with the foliage in full bloom, many areas were obstructed from view. Who knows what would be found once summer turned to fall and the plants shed their leaves?
The groups split off to cover more ground. Lexi, myself and James, a friendly, environmentally aware 14-year-old Chinese immigrant who came to the U.S. only a few years ago, wended our way down into an embankment where we finally found a few pieces to stuff into our trash and recycling bags — liquor bottles whose contents had long since been consumed and a tire that had perhaps years ago outlived its usefulness and found imprisonment in this boggy, marshy swamp.
We were about to leave when we decided to give the area one last sweep. Walking farther in, we came across a jackpot! Well, jackpot might not be the best word in this context. For what we found was simply a visual example of how our consumerist, disposable culture has continued throughout the years, choking the planet.
This list of items recovered from an area the size of a McMansion’s backyard, which is by no means comprehensive, included: liquor bottles, beer bottles, beer cans, soda bottles, soda cans, tires, tennis balls, other bouncy balls (we assumed they were dogs toys), plastic wrappers, various and sundry unidentifiable glass jars and, of course, a seed spreader. Whew!
Amidst the muck, the sweat, the strain of dragging the rapidly filling garbage bags and tires (I kid you not, we collected seven from several areas, five of them from that spot alone) up through the mire and into the parking lot, I felt not tired, not even deeply annoyed at how much stuff people have thoughtlessly "out of sight, out of minded." (I am no saint, I’ve done my fair share of the same).
What I felt most of all was nourishment I had not felt in a while. It comes from knowing, and doing, something that does not just benefit you, but many others. The rest of the world, even.
Does this sound a bit highfalutin? Perhaps. But, just think about it. This feeling of great satisfaction, of doing something to change things for the better, is infectious, it really is. And, if we all did one simple thing — like pick up a few pieces of trash at a park maybe — just imagine how much better this world, and those people doing this work, would be?
You still have the opportunity to find out how good you’ll feel. This Sunday, from 1 to 3:30 p.m., Anneli and co. will be out at the Shabakunk Creek to conclude National River Cleanup Week. Everyone meets at the Lawrence Shopping Center parking lot on Route 1. I’ll be there, and I hope you will be, too. For more information, visit www.thewatershed.org.
John Dunphy is managing editor of The Lawrence Ledger. You can reach him at [email protected]

