I was in Philadelphia over the weekend and got to walk in the park along Wissahickon Creek. Regular readers know that it’s one of my favorite places on Earth. Here are a couple maps of it:

and a friendlier one. Growing up in Mt Airy and Germantown, I recognize all the neighborhood names around it, which remind me of where friends lived, where I played little league or soccer, rode my bike up incredibly steep hills, worked at my first job, and so on. Also, where I got mugged, my life threatened, mugged again, mugged again and again, my life threatened again, my bikes stolen, and so on.

These days, I ask a lot of people what nature and the environment mean to them. People tell me touching, heartfelt stories and vignettes. Each is personal to them, but we all have some meaningful experiences. When I hear others’ recount theirs, I can’t help but think of mine. If you watched my TEDx talk about the best sledding hill in the world, it’s here.

In March I posted about a walk in this park: Another walk in the park with family Spodek Method commitment. There you’ll see a park with no leaves on the trees: beautiful but stark. This time I walked alone so didn’t have to keep up with family and took more pictures in the peak of summer foliage.

The pictures below are in chronological order.

As I entered the park, the words kept going through my head: “There is no place that I’d rather be.”

Even after I found, photographed, and picked up the three water bottles and cigarette pack shortly after entering, I kept thinking those words.

As I reached the bottom, where the trail I entered on reached the larger path called Forbidden Drive because motor vehicles are forbidden from it, I heard music blaring from a family party. I suspect amplified music is not allowed. Sound pollution is pollution. More garbage littered the path there.

When I found the family blaring its music, I saw they parked an all-terrain vehicle there, which is definitely not allowed. You’ll see the picture toward the bottom of this series. I think they saw me take the picture, but for whatever reason one guy drove it away. I think it had a two-stroke engine, since I associate them with being very loud and letting out plumes of dark gray smoke that smell of uncombusted gasoline and oil, which this guy did.

I turned to a person next to me on a bike with his child and asked, “Those aren’t allowed here, right?” I know vehicles are allowed near Valley Green Inn, where I was headed, so thought maybe I was in that area, giving the ATV driver the benefit of the doubt.

“No,” the guy with his child replied. “Can you imagine if he hit someone or had an accident?” I wouldn’t describe him as full-on angry, but not calm.

“I’m glad I’m not crazy,” I said.

I kept walking along Forbidden Drive, slightly annoyed that I didn’t record the ATV guy driving, to convey how he polluted this place that feels sacred to me. A few minutes later, he drove back. This time I recorded it on video, which you’ll see below all these pictures. He said a few words to me. I wouldn’t say I felt threatened, but I think he was trying to intimidate me. No one else was within sight at that point, but I was recording so I think he saw that threatening or hurting me wouldn’t help, but I think he wanted to.

I would have thought that guy and his ATV would be my low point of the walk. No. As I reached where the cars were allowed, the garbage increased. Two things affected me most. Both were in the parking lots. See the first image that’s vertical? The white thing in the leaves was a used diaper. The second was the next vertical picture, coincidentally, which was the pattern of garbage distribution: dropped between cars, likely someone just opening their car doors to drop into public space their personal garbage. Maybe they dropped it just before getting in their cars.

I continued picking up garbage from those parking lots, plenty more than I photographed. I felt sad at what felt like desecration of space a community has loved for centuries. I can’t imagine people’s lives are improved by bringing cartons of Corona beer and McDonald’s beverages there. Come to think of it, they didn’t seem to either since many of the containers I picked up weren’t empty. They brought doof they don’t even want when all the sensory experience they could hope for was already there.

Videos

First is a few seconds of the guy pulling out with the ATV, before he drove away. The second is a longer one with him driving back, talking to me.

Partly these videos and the diaper make me sad. Leadership means facing these situations and persevering. I envision a world where stewardship and appreciation are normal and where people enjoy them more than activities that pollute and deplete. Don’t we prefer such a world?