My Justification for Littering.

Let me start by saying that I do recycle. I don't own personal grocery bags yet but I always ask for paper. Sometimes when I feel extra environmentally conscious I'll pour my used oil into a milk jug rather than the street drain. So for the most part I would consider myself a friend of the planet. Her and I are pretty solid buddies. We don't hang out all the time but we always say hello. With that said let me give a brief story.

As a kid my parents would take my brothers and I to my grandfather's walnut ranch. It wasn't the biggest ranch being only 4 acres but it seemed humongous to a few little boys. We'd wander the barns and fields looking for anything of interest. Some of our more memorable findings included rusty tools, old bottles and mouse traps. But on one very special occasion I found something much, much better. I remember walking on a recently tilled field and finding a couple of golden keys tucked away in the dirt. This was awesome. In my mind these keys could be the keys to anything. Upon finding the keys I promptly tried them in all the locks I came in contact with. No car, house, mailbox or store lock was left untested. My imagination whizzed and whirled at the possibility that some day my golden keys would unlock something.

So I do litter on the occasion that I am done with a key. Once every few years I'll go through my key chain and downsize it. Keys get on it and they are never used. They are just dead weight. So being the understanding person that I am I throw them on the ground. That's right, I drop them in parking lots or throw them in some bushes. Heck, if I was by the ocean I'd chuck them right in the thick it. My reasoning is simple, one of the greatest finds for a young child is finding a key on the ground. To a child it becomes more than a key; it becomes a catalyst for imagination.

I kept my golden keys for a long time in a drawer filled with wonders. I never did figure out what those keys unlocked, but in my little boy brain I was convinced that they were the keys to lost pirate treasure. The keys had been discovered, but the treasure would remain lost forever.