This I Believe

Part 1:

The Serenity to Change the Things I Can

Mark Olmsted - Hollywood, California

I believe in picking up trash.

I’ve always hated litter; in fact, I once walked out in the middle of a date because my companion threw a wrapper on the sidewalk. In my opinion, littering is the most preventable and stupid of the world’s sins, and all the more infuriating because it has no proponents. For example, though I am also against corporal punishment, there are people who would readily argue that it is a useful and necessary form of discipline. But no one ever defends littering—even the people who do it.

Yet I am not one to throw stones. For the first several years of this millennium, I was a drug addict who sold crystal meth to support my habit. My buying and selling undoubtedly contributed to a lot of toxic waste created by meth labs. After nine months of prison and a commitment to sobriety, I felt I had to make amends.

After moving to a working class neighborhood in Los Angeles, my first reaction to the trash-filled streets was to say a well-known prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” As I walked my dog every day, I thought the litter was something I just had to accept. After all, what was I supposed to do? Pick it up?

The thought was like a pebble in my shoe. Try as I might I just couldn’t shake it loose.

So one day, I decided to do just that: Pick it up. In a leap of faith, I went down to Home Depot, bought myself an E-Z Reacher, and started plucking the empty cigarette packs, soda cans, fast food packaging, coffee containers, newspapers, styrofoam cups, and just about anything you can think of into plastic grocery bags. For over five years now, I have filled at least four bags every morning, one for each block of my dog-walking route. Sometimes, I do it again on different streets in the afternoon, especially if I’m having a bad day.

I believe in picking up trash because it’s taught me that you can’t assume to know the difference between the things you must accept and the things that you can change—you have to think about it. It’s taught me to question the premise of all sorts of assumptions I had previously made, from the idea that the only possible reaction to traffic is anger and frustration, to the belief that I was a hopeless addict who couldn’t possibly get clean.

Every morning, picking up trash is my answer to the questions: How can I be of service today? What do I have the courage to change? And every night, no matter how much the day didn’t seem to go my way, I can fall asleep counting the bags of trash I’ve picked up, comforted that in this lifetime I’ve been able to find one thing to do that’s unarguably, unambiguously good.

Mark Olmsted is a former drug addict who undertook keeping his neighborhood clean as part of his recovery regimen. He lectures on "The Six Spiritual Principles of Picking Up Trash" from his base in Hollywood, California, where he still picks bags of litter a day. His website is trashwhisperer.com.

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/39990/

I really connect with Mark Olmsted's essay about changing something he does not like in the world. Olmsted saw something he disliked and instead of complaining about it and sitting and watching it happen, he decided to try to change it. I think it is important to do something about what we think is wrong in the world. Olmsted decided to become proactive in an issue that he had once himself helped create. He shows that you do not have to be wealthy or some kind of superhero to make a difference in the world. If you care enough about a problem, then it is your responsibility to try and make it right in whatever way you can. Though Olmsted cannot pick up all the litter in the world, his simple action of picking up trash in his neighborhood has had a ripple effect. He is the epitome of thinking globally and acting locally.

Part 2:

What Brings Us Together

Emily Fayram

I believe everybody should be a Green Bay Packers’ fan. My reasoning for this belief has little to do with sports. Green Bay, Wisconsin is a town with a population of 105,809 people. It is home to the only publicly-owned team in the National Football League, the Packers. Although the Packers come from a small town, they have millions of fans worldwide. I’ve grown up a Packers’ fan and realize that it means so much more than favoring a football team: it is being a community.

Whenever I wear my bright yellow Packers’ shirt, I meet a lot of people. Whether it is a fellow fan wearing the same logo or a random man in the grocery market, strangers who share a love for the Packers make conversation or say a polite “hello” or “go Pack!” Similarly, whenever I see someone sporting the green and gold “G” I smile at them and treat them like family. The Packers bring together groups of otherwise very different people to create a diverse community. When you realize someone is passionate about what you are passionate about it is easy to establish a bond.

Being part of a community means giving and working together. The team has a unique relationship with its fans. For over fifty years, players have been riding young fans’ bikes from the training facility across the street to Lambeau Field where they practice. The players often sign autographs for the kids after. The Packers have no official cheerleaders, rather they have cheer squads from local high schools and colleges come lead the already exuberant crowd. Additionally, when it snows before a game, the Lambeau Field staff has to turn away volunteers to shovel snow off the seats. This is true community, working together for a common purpose.

Packers’ fans are not fair-weather fans; I will always be a cheesehead. This mentality is the glue that bonds the community. In a community, you have to cooperate to be successful. Packers’ fans support each other. Whether our team is losing or winning we stay together and cheer until the end. We lift each other up in losses and celebrate in victories. Communities need resiliency and determination through the good times and bad.

Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines community as “people with common interests living in a particular area,” but I believe it goes beyond that. To me, community is a group of people that work together and support each other no matter where they are. I believe in community and the ability to work together, yet be completely different. I believe that simplicity pulls people together more than complex ideas. I believe people can find similarities through their differences. I believe people can be brought together by even a trivial common interest. It is easy to love and support someone who shares your passion, for that reason; I believe everybody in the world should be a Packers’ fan.