Long walks on the beach are so relatively good. I have some experience with walks on the beach. When I was fourteen, I was at the beach with a good friend, and we wanted our moms to take us down to the pier to see the KROQ van, which was there due to the OP Surf Competition, and our moms were like, no, we won't drive you down there. So we walked. It was quite far -- much farther than we had anticipated. So that was a long walk. Another time I went for a walk with the guy that another good friend had a major hard crush on, and this fellow and I ended up bonding and then going for a swim in the ocean at night with all of our clothes on, and then had to walk back, soaked. That was a long walk. (Subsequently, we became involved in a relationship that made the long walk, although originally a walk of shame, worth it.) So, my long walks on the beach have had a pattern, essentially ending up with me getting in some trouble or drama.
I can see how long walks could also be uncomfortable. There's hazzards like sand in shoes, rusty nails, glass, stinky smells, tsunami-ish waves engulfing pant legs, and sunburn. I do think that the ocean is a fascinating place to hang out. And Long Beach has...an ocean. Alas, the breakwater makes said ocean disgusting. There are several groups attempting to put plans into action that would remove the break water and bring back the surf to Long Beach. I am all for this...as it's not fun to live with an ocean in my backyard that I can't swim in. Plus, the beach is dirty. And, seriously, I'm not a germaphobe or even really that concerned about germs in general -- but Long Beach and even Belmont Shore is NASTY. There are so many homeless that the beach ends up being thier refuge. There are showers, bathrooms, and sand, if adjusted right, isn't too uncomfortable to sleep on, as it retains heat pretty well. Plus, it's rather inexplensive to go to the beach for recreation, so you have large lower class families flocking there for solace, and trash can be a problem. That smells bad. So it's a dirty place I don't visit as I normally would visit the beach.
Even though I'm not taking the plunge in the breakwaters anytime soon, I do use the cemented pedestrian path that runs alongside the shore for exercize. Today I was doing the three mile loop, and I passed one of the giant gutters that drains to the ocean, and I saw this seagull. It didn't look good, It's head feathers were all ruffed up, and it wasn't moving away from the bike path, like most birds would and it stopped me, mid-stride. I was like, oh seagull, what's wrong? And I noticed that there was a long piece of fishing line coming out of it's mouth...and my heart just dropped. It means that either the gull ate some bait, and swallowed a hook, or it just happened to swallow line; whatever the reason, it didn't look good.
It makes me so sad, to think that humankind causes the earth such suffering. And I know the bird wasn't thinking emotionally about the pain he was in, but I still can't help thinking that if mankind didn't exist in it's current state, then this seagull wouldn't be dying a slow, torturous death. Think of all the suffering humankind causes. It's almost immeasureable. That seagull's death and pain was so rediculous. I mean, is anyone really fishing out of the breakwaters because they are starving? Or are these simple hunting pastimes, meant to evoke a time when we really depended on our skills as food providers; in other words, when we really meant something on this planet.
I often think of trash and waste, and how awareness on this issue hasn't put enough of a dent in the problem. In this way, I'm kind of an anti-naturalist. I think that nature is the answer, not the problem. Of course, there are disasters that are soley nature's fault -- but so often it's where human's greed has placed people that is the problem. The Tsunami? Yes, it would have been tragic any way you look at it, but what about the aspects of tourism that made it such a grand disaster? You have thousands of locals working for pennies in one area so that the well off can relax and take advantage of the cheap labor and facilities, which are often exploitive. Katrina? Yes, hurricanes are unavoidably life threatening. But why where there leevees in the first place? I believe the Katrina disaster, with it's destruction on such a grand scale, to be the effects of greed. It's hard to prove, but terribly convincing.
Today's long walk wasn't romantic, but it stirred a lot of passion that I had forgotten about. I'm going down that same path tomorrow, and if the gull is still there, I may try to take it to the vet. What was that book Anne Lamont wrote? One Bird at a Time? We'll see.
2 comments:
I find it interesting to read your latest and this blog at the same time. We are capable of great evil and great good. Case in point: damaged seagull and your hope to help it. Good and evil exist simultaneously. I think we differ, ultimately, on Nature. Nature is neutral -- like human beings. Capable of beauty and destruction. Yes, we humans bring much destruction upon ourselves and upon our environment and upon other creatures. We also build fantastically beautiful cities like New Orleans which might be ill-advised, but certainly speak to our imagination and capacity for experimentation. Ultimately, I guess I prefer human beings over any other species, even though we are, of course, the most complex and capable of the most evil. But we are also capable of the most good. The thought of an empty, beautiful earth, filled with plants and animals, but no people, saddens me beyond belief. But you are right that so often we choose badly and are motivated by greed.
I'm with you -- I love blasted humanity. And I get disappointed like the dickens. I mean, I get that we can't get along with eachother -- but why do we generally give nature the short end of the stick? I know that we can never exist without causing pain - even if just accidental -- but the kind of thing that makes me so frustrated and sad is the suffering that gives the oppressor power and/or wealth. The bird was so helpless, probably dying, and it was just doing what seagulls do -- scavenge or fish. And the best case scenario, ethically, is that someone was fishing and the seagull ate the bait off of the line. There was something just rediculously profound in this for me. Not just the bit about condemnation for those who aren't lentil eating hippies, but the suffering for no reason, or for accidental reason where the effect doesn't seem to match the cause. I'm very sensitive to...suffering. Human suffering bothers me the most. Animals suffering come second. The thing is, animals don't have egos. So it's very difficult to see them suffer. And I think cruelty to animals is abominable.
I don't think humans' ability to build beautiful things is as telling as our ability to be so willingly careless about our future and the preservation of our species.
Well, I still eat meat. So there is that.
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