Waller Creek

It was the Saturday morning after Plan II Formal; I rolled out of bed and threw on sweats and my sneakers. It was time to clean up Waller Creek, how badly the creek needed the cleanup I did not fully know. Megan, Vanessa and I made the trudge out to the other side of campus complaining about the early hour and our lack of sleep. We got to the creek however, and soon saw in what need the creek was. Before that day, I associated Waller Creek with the pretty place we call the ¿Under cliff.¿ I knew there were portions of the creek that had trash, but never did I imagine this level of trash. The area between 24^th and Dean Keaton was assigned to us. We took off with our assortment of trash bags and recycling pales and were in awe at the amount of trash that can accumulate in just one year. Bottles, empty containers, old clothes, you name ¿ it was there. It is incredible that this project of cleaning the creek is done every year, and every year there is this much trash out there. The other thing that is astounding is that every bit of trash that was found was man made, and man dumped in this creek. How can people have such disrespect for their surroundings? Mother earth has given us so much, and this is how people choose to repay her? In Hinduism, you are taught to respect your surroundings, and in this class we stress the same values. We have meditated at Waller Creek, the Oriental Gardens, and the Turtle Pond. In fact, everywhere we go we look for nature and how it relates to us. The world around us is such an integral part of our lives. How can we treat it like such trash? We must show the earth the same respect we would show our mothers, who give to us on that same level. We must give back and not just take and take. From our excursions at the Bump ranch to our daily adventures at ¿The Under Cliff,¿ we learn to co-exist with nature. This day of cleaning the creek made me question that however. Can man co-exist with nature? Or will he inevitably hurt the other? I hope that the first is true, and that man can peacefully coexist in a mutually beneficial way with nature. In order to achieve this goal we must not only respect nature but take care of it. The idea of a Waller Creek cleanup is nice, but the fact that it is necessary is only because of the wrongs that we as people do. That must stop before it starts, and I have never felt so passionately about the environment till I saw how terribly it can be treated. Everyone should clean up Waller Creek or something of that nature because it is truly an eye opening experience. If we continue to treat the world like this there will be nothing left for us to take from.