Tuesday, March 16, 2010

2Fer Tuesday. In N' Out, The Lawyers, and The Golden Opportunity.




"If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracle of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it."
-- Lyndon Johnson (on signing into law the Wilderness Act, 1964)

So, yesterday I was driving up to the drive-thru at In N' Out and the girl in an SUV in front of me  opened her door and sheepishly dumped two large plastic bottles of most likely soda on the curb, closed her door and pulled up to order.

I proceeded to open my window and yell out, "You just littered." To which she opened her driver's window and blithely said, " I know."

I said, "That is illegal. Pick it up."

To which she said, "No."

And when I asked, "Why did you do that?"

She defensively answered, "Because they wouldn't dump them for me."

"Do you care about the environment?" I asked.

"Obviously not," the blond driver threw back.

And I responded, "Why should someone else throw your garbage out? Get out of your car and throw them out."

Then -- I heard yelling and it was coming from her friend in the passenger's seat. She then jumped out of the car -- replete with her bright pink t-shirt and pink cotton headband and yelled, 

"Shut the f- up! You get out of your car!"

To which I responded, "What are you gonna do to me, pinky?"

Then, "If you have the energy to get out of your car and yell at me, walk over to your two plastic bottles you littered and throw them out!"

Then, they screeched off to the second window. 

I told the managers walking around the parking lot and they said they would talk to the girls at window one.

I told the girl who said to me at window one, "I like your hair!" -- "Thanks -- did you see those girls litter?" She passionately responded she hadn't but that littering was awful and she wished she had.

And... the point of this all is:

One of the greatest things about growing up -- is having the courage to speak up for what you believe in.

I love this earth.

And I feel privileged to be here for this short journey -- this golden blip really in the span of the universe.

And so I told these two girls -- pinky and the blond driver. And no -- they didn't pick up their bottles-- but maybe, just maybe -- next time they think of throwing their trash onto the sidewalk, they will remember a certain young woman behind them in her blue Volkswagen beetle. Unafraid to speak up for the environment, which SO needs us all to protect it.

And this kind of passion I felt in my very blood -- this is exactly what I am putting into my acting and writing. It is all the same thing.

Love... always.

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