Thursday, April 10, 2008

A leaf on the asphalt

I arrived early for the carpool this morning and had a few moments to listen to Bob Seger and check out the vacant, dimly lit parking lot where we meet. There are a few perimeter lights that glow softly and provide minimal lighting; this is a church parking lot, so there is an assumed level of protection that requires little lighting.

On the ground next to my car was a single leaf, brown and crisp, that must have been there since last winter. In the middle of this sea of asphalt, this leaf was being denied a place in the circle of life. It's destiny was to return to the soil through a long, slow decaying process that leaves a trace of sweetness in the air, instead it lay there looking out of place and without a purpose.

We have paved over our planet; I wonder how many flooding issues are due to the lack of open soil for water to filter into. In heavy rains the street drains overflow, the streams they drain into overflow, and it all disappears into the rivers immediately instead being absorbed back into the ground.

Across the street, a tree caught my eye. A large sweet gum had grown up around a street lamp and was illuminated by it from the inside. With the darkness of early morning behind it, this artificially lit tree was beautiful. We have done some amazing things here on earth, they just don't get the attention they deserve because they are so common place that we just accept them and move on. The idea of having power available around an entire planet is phenomenal, we just need to be responsible about our consumption so the phenomenon can continue into the foreseeable future. Like so many other things that harm us, in America we have perfected the art of overindulgence.

I think I'll just show up on time for the carpool from now on.

1 comment:

Echo said...

I love the leaf imagery--very powerful. I've thought about the paving issue so many times and the pollutants that flow from pavement into streams and rivers.