NOTES FROM THE ROAD: On Stewardship

Beauty will save the world. – Fyodor Dostoevsky

I was walking on 1^st Avenue, south of the Pike Place Market, when I heard two men talking loudly. They were close enough to make me turn and look. The guys were burly, not in the best of shape, not old, but not young; it’s hard to tell someone’s age. What caught me by surprise was that they were making disparaging remarks about my city.  

One guy said, “I need to take a piss.” 

The other guy said, “This is Seattle, you can take a shit on the street if you want.” 

I turned and gave them more than a side-glance. Lucky for me, but luckier for them, they quickly crossed the street, against traffic. 

The burly guys are right, my streets are littered with garbage, but litter is everywhere, not only in downtown Seattle. Deep in the forest, on ocean beaches, in public gardens, freeway greenbelts, and on riverfront walkways, I have seen trails soiled with litter: Starbucks containers, junk food wrappers, Styrofoam containers, soiled diapers, cast-off clothing, syringe needles...

There is a commonly-held belief that the garbage is left by vagrants, addicts, the mentally ill—those who are experiencing homelessness. There is truth in the belief that the homeless make a mess. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. But it is equally true that an alarming number of people, who have homes and jobs, are dumping trash because they just don’t give a damn. 

It does not take much effort to discard my own garbage. There is no shortage of large trash cans and dumpsters on every street and in every neck of the woods. The presence of garbage everywhere is a sad commentary about our culture. Americans have traveled far afield from the time when we cared about being good stewards in our own backyards. 

In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson signed the Highway Beautification Act, with powerful messaging: “Keep America Beautiful.”  The Highway Beautification Act was an outgrowth of First Lady Bird Johnson’s beautification campaign. She fought to make American cities more beautiful, planting flowers or adding more park benches, and by removing billboards and junkyards from the nation’s highways. 

It was the First Lady who had her husband’s ear that in large measure led to the Highway Beautification Act. The Act encompassed far more than beautifying highways, but also helped to create national parks, and significant environmental legislation sanctifying the clean air and clean water that many of us still enjoy today.  

Over fifty years later, we value our national parks, mountains, woods, coastal waterways, and greenbelts. We pay homage to climate change by driving electric cars, buying sustainably designed furniture and laying bamboo floors. Then there is the garbage festering everywhere, dropped on tree stumps in old growth forests and spilling out from homeless encampments off the freeway. This blight of garbage is a malignancy that no one has yet dared to give a name.

Seattle-based Author and Filmmaker John de Graff recently noted in his article And Beauty for All that, “In the quest for wealth and growth we have overlooked the human need for beauty.”  Beauty is at the core of taking care of the world around us. Taking care of the world around us embodies the essence of what can only be defined as stewardship. 

Stewardship is taking care of what I have today, so that it will still be around tomorrow. It’s all of my pesky little chores: replacing buttons and zippers, pruning trees, cleaning up yards, getting the oil changed in my car, cleaning the lint that has built up in the laundry vent. Stewardship is taking of all of those things around me, including taking care of my body, the temple that houses my mind, heart and soul. 

According to John de Graaf, “Evidence shows that all Americans appreciate beauty, regardless of their political views, origin, or creed, and that working to restore beautiful landscapes and create beautiful places can bring us together and build community in polarizing times.” 

I have a deep abiding belief in beauty. “Beauty will save the world.” Being a good steward means I will create beauty. I must make strenuous moral decisions every day of my life. Must I pick up the empty junk food wrappers left on a stump in the middle of the woods? It doesn’t matter who left it there. I will pick it up and make it my own. If I can do these small acts of stewardship, then maybe I can get to the big picture—taking care of the earth. 

There are few incontrovertible truths in this world, but Stewardship is one truth I cannot deny. I know if don’t take care of things, they will wither away or break down, turn into garbage, and perish. Taking care of the immediate environment around me is really about showing respect for myself and all the people around me, even the two burly guys who do not see the beauty of my city.