National River Clean-Up Day, the sequel

Yesterday was National River Clean-Up Day, and I participated again, like I did last year. I looked over that old post today, and found it moving to recall my observations. Indeed, they were true again this time.

The situation was a little different because heavy rains had made for high water as recently as a week ago. Much of what we were cleaning up had been underwater. The trees and reeds were swept in a downstream direction and tended to have bits of plastic and other trash stuck in them from the flow. This differed from cleaning up when the creek bed had been dry for a while, and most of the littering was trash thrown directly by humans from camping and parties. I had to learn other strategies-- like looking up! There were plastic bags stuck in branches several feet above me!

I would like to add a few more things that came to mind yesterday:

• What about the creatures who die in the clean-up process? In picking up trash from the underbrush, I swept away a few spiders and other bugs, and no doubt stepped on a zillion ants. Is is OK that they died because a human was cleaning up after the littering of other humans? And make no mistake-- I killed those insects. There is not some twisted logic trail that says the litterers are somehow responsible for their deaths. That sort of thinking causes huge problems in the world, and it does not solve any problems. It is truly useless thinking.
  
  So I killed creatures in the act of helping the creek become cleaner and more sightly. In fact, if you look carefully, you'll see that killing is unavoidable and supports life. The point is not to feel awful about this, but to be aware of it and in some way honor those who die in order that we may live (and have clean water). Such a view is more beneficial than denial, willful ignorance, moral righteousness, or self-hating guilt.
  
  
• Even in the act of performing service, the mind can slip into unhelpful states. You might think that "doing good" means automatically that you are in a good mental state, with a free and open heart. HAH. It wasn't true for me. I still had moments of impatience and annoyance, and I caught my mind wandering off on long thought-trails about events from yesterday or tomorrow, or stories about why I believed something. This is not really contributing to the act of service.
  
  In fact, I had seen this last year when I noted that I had experienced anger at humans for littering. This time around, I see the same thing in a different way: As a reminder that doing something helpful is not a guarantee of being in a helpful state of mind. --- But I will say that it sure improves the odds! This observation is not license to go do whatever you want.
  
  This points out directly the flaw in some people's logic that certain actions guarantee that certain states of mind/heart are in operation. For instance, that someone goes to church makes them a person of high moral integrity. Or even that someone is a doctor, a religious leader, or a monk ensures that they are a certain way. The outer world is not so straightforward. The same action by two people with different internal factors will carry a different moral weight. And only the performer of the action can really know his or her intention. (That's right, folks: You are the pilot).
  

Another fruitful day removing various kinds of detritus. And today, it is pouring rain again. When the water rises, however, less trash will float into the creek, keeping it cleaner and clearer.