People take to the streets celebrating, organizing rallies, staged marches on political institutions, speeches, concerts and festivals.  One can don their favorite “Be Nice to Your Mother” t-shirt pack up the ice chest and Styrofoam plates with plastic sporks, maybe even the hibachi, and head off to the park with thousands of other like minded enlightened to listen to your favorite bands perform their favorite tunes at ear bleed decibels all the while trampling Spring’s offering of new green grass and hopeful flower buds discarding used cups, plates and napkins along the way because someone neglected to pack trash bags.  These same people will spend forty minutes looking for the recycle bin for their beer cans and in that same time span flick half a pack’s worth of Marlboro butts on the ground.

Zoë’s school had a poster campaign and a dress down day in honor of the event.  Innocuous enough I suppose, yet I hardly believe that any of the paper used for the posters will be recycled (I know the three rejected ideas in our house were not).  And the money collected from dress down privileges.  Well, that’s going towards the purchase of microphones for the auditorium.  A much needed item, mind you but in my advanced and cynical age I tend to view amplified noise as not very environmentally friendly.

So it’s Earth Day.  Again.  Like the saying goes, Every Day is Earth Day, and unfortunately I’ll have to delay my observances.  As much as I’d like to reduce my impact, if even for the day, I’m off to fire up every piece of power equipment I own because Spring has sprung and my yard is rapidly overtaking me.  Sorry, Mom.  But you need a haircut!

Anyone doing anything special for Earth Day?