From Spanish to littering, my mind does wander a bit

The holidays are over and it's back to work! Marcela and I resumed Spanish class yesterday. I've been rather lazy over the past couple weeks but I'm ready to dig in and get busy again.

Sunday I happened to notice the hubby's radio that came with his tool set. It runs on an 18 volt battery and is small enough to carry from room to room. I had an "Aha!" moment when I realized it was just the thing for me to use. Marcela's been telling me it would be good to listen to talk radio but I can't get it to work on my computer and it's just a hassle with the one hubby uses. Monday morning I listened while cleaning the kitchen. Did you know that radio personalities sound the same no matter where you go? Seriously, they really do! That same voice inflection and way of speaking. Interesting. So even though I was only catching words here and there, I could totally tell when a commercial came on ☺

Auditory is definitely my weakest area. This has become more evident as I read about "The Gentleman in the Rusty Armor". I read chapter one out loud to the hubby and did okay. He read chapter two out loud while I read along. Chapter 3 he's been reading without me looking at the book and boy, is it hard! I concentrate really hard but even so, by the time he gets to the end of a sentence I've forgotten what was at the beginning ☹ He'll read a sentence in its entirety and then we'll go word-by-word or phrase-by-phrase. S-L-O-W!!!

Hopefully listening to the radio will improve my auditory ability.

With the holidays over, we're also getting serious about eating healthier and exercising more. We're walking first thing in the morning -- even before coffee! That's how you know we're serious ☺ The coastline around the lake starts filling up with people by mid-morning but early morning it's still pretty quiet except for a few others walking.

One of the things I've noticed is the amount of litter. It's hard not to notice because it's staggering! There are a few spotty trashcans here and there but they're small and fill up quickly. But more importantly is the attitude most people have that it's somebody's job to clean up after them so they have every right to just throw things on the ground. It's the concept that their trash gives someone employment.

And there are people whose job it is to clean up the litter. But there aren't enough of them and the result is a constant landscape of paper and bottles and garbage strewn about. Sad really, because it's so beautiful here and would look much nicer if everyone just took care of their own trash. And isn't not littering a matter of good stewardship?

I remember a huge push back in the 60s and 70s to prevent littering in the U.S., especially along roadways. Lady Bird Johnson got the ball rolling when she was First Lady and I remember having lessons about it in school and seeing commercials on TV. Who could forget this one from the early 70s?

You gotta admit, that was some pretty powerful advertising, especially for children! I know it didn't take too long before we started ragging on parents or anyone else who dared to litter. Boy and Girl Scout troops would often tackle a portion of road or a park to clean up. It was "the" thing to do back then.

I'm trying to convince myself that littering is one of those "it's not right or wrong, it's just different" situations but it's not easy. I'm learning some things are so ingrained that it'll take dynamite to dislodge them. *sigh* But it helps me understand a little better how strong the cultural pull is in a society. We're coming up against some cultural walls that make it very difficult to reach people with God's Word. Knowing how bull-headed I am about certain things shows me how other people can be bull-headed about their own cultural strongholds.