When I walk this vast beach, I often carry away bags of human leavings: chunks of nylon rope, many-colored pieces of hard plastic, bottles and jugs, plastic bags, hunks of styrofoam, boots and rotten cloth.  It always disturbs me that as steward of this earth, so much of humankind remains oblivious to personal action and responsibility.

As a young child I learned to leave the places I visited cleaner than they were when I arrived.  I wonder if young people today are taught that value.