I was in Fort Lauderdale recently.
I was filming episodes of Sunwarrior TV,
and despite the cloudy-windy weather, I had a really good time.
The Sunwarrior folks have what it takes to get people (especially guys)
to start thinking a little more about the food that they eat.
They have a great team which Im proud to be a part of.
So while I was there, I ran on the beach quite a bit.
I did it barefoot so i could get the electrical connection to the Earth
and also to get the good sand between my toes to help spread them out more.
I would listen to audiobooks or some peaceful music and just
enjoy the super fresh ocean air. Despite being so close to the Atlantic
here in NYC, I just dont feel like we get that same kind of air.
Maybe its all the um...cars? Likely. Anyways...
The beach is nice, but there is a decent amount of litter.
I just couldnt deal with the sight of it, so I started picking it up.
For hours I would powerwalk up and down the beach and just fill
up grocery bags with so much litter. How could people not care about this?
So as I was doing this, I made a discovery.
This little guy was washed up on the beach.
Still alive, but gasping. It wasnt pretty.
Since he was a blowfish, picking him up with my bare
hands didnt seem to be the wisest of choices so I hunted
around a bit and found some useful litter - a plastic shovel.
I scooped him up, took a pic, (or 10) and put him back in the water.
So beautiful right? I could feel his soul while looking in those eyes!
So yes...I flung him back into the water, but after another 10 min
of picking up trash, I found him again.
This was a bad sign. He was done. I gave him a second chance
thinking that maybe he was still healthy but got washed up
accidentally by the waves, but in reality...his time was up.
He just sat there and gasped. I couldnt just walk away from his suffering
or pick him up again to throw him in the garbage to slowly die.
So I did what every mature person would do -
quite sadly and savagely I found a rock and put him out of his suffering.
What would you do in this situation? Could you do the same?
I just couldnt walk away so as to avoid the pain of killing him.
I had to do what needed to be done, and that was to finish his pain
and send him onto the next chapter of his existence.
Hopefully he is a baby shark right now.
Not a pretty sight, but it had to be done.
Im sorry little fish.
I then carried him away and placed him in the bushes so
maybe some birds could eat him...it would be a shame to
put him in the trash and rob the ecosystem of his body.
Good to keep it all in the cycle.
I felt sad, but it had to be done.
I then went back to picking up more trash.
Look what I found...big shards of glass! I was just running on this beach
and there were little kids nearby playing...how could this be?
I would think that the residents of the area or even the hotels
across the street would pay people to do sweeps and clean it up.
There was so much crap...it wasnt like coney island of course,
but it was an eyesore and it saddened me that people could
1. Put up with it and not be bothered enough to just pick it up themselves
and 2. Put trash there to begin with. What a spoiled treasure.
Now I was thinking...how much money it would take to pay people
to just do what I did. Or to organize a volunteer group to get people
together to go "Clean up the Beach!" It would be such an ordeal.
T-shirts would have to be made, flyers, non-profits would have to be funded etc.
Such a hassle when simple direct action by a few people would fix it all.
Its so simple. Thats the beauty of it. It doesn't take much of anything.
One person, all by himself picks up loads and loads of trash
on a stretch of beach in Florida. In a few hours I did what would have
taken weeks to organize. Board members would've needed to vote on
proposals or permits would have to be made hahaha...such a joke.
If you get anything from this, it is this -
Direct action by just a few people accomplishes more
than tons of money and people combined if
their hearts are in the right place.
If you are powered by source, you can clean beaches, plant forests,
feed the hungry...it goes on and on really.
So...as I was doing this, I had a visitor.
There were regular-looking pigeons all over the beach.
Looking beat up and foraging for food.
Yet, this single white little angel came over to me and said hello.
It was the nicest thank you I couldve asked for.
Maybe it just thought that I had food lol...
but none of the other pigeons came near me like this one did.
And for the final revelation...I saw a man walking along the beach
with a metal detector. Looking for buried treasure I suppose.
The irony was that the REAL treasure was the pristine beach
he was walking on. Not some stupid coins or jewelry.
Here I was walking along him picking up trash,
while he was strolling along looking for other leftovers.
The real treasure is unspoiled nature. This fellow was walking
on a goldmine, while looking for coins buried within it.
Could he spend his time enriching the real treasure instead
of searching for quarters and pennies to pay his cable bill?
Remember this...the real treasure is nature.
Not man-made ANYTHING. Its all fleeting and its all a distraction.
Direct action will save us.
Petitions may delay negativity,
but for true positive co-creation, direct action always gets the goods.
No committees, no permits, no headaches.
Get out there and make the world a better place!
One little stretch of beach at a time...it all adds up!
