SOULS

D-Day - 5 and the preparations continue dizzingly. I will have a real itinerary to post shortly, but before getting into all of that stuff, I had to take one more aside and talks about SOULS. This is an acronym for the _S_top _OU_tdoor _L_ittering _S_ociety.

What is SOULS? The brainchild of my 8 year old daughter, Gwen, and her new buddy Barrett. They got to be friends watching all of Sam's baseball games this spring (Barrett's older brother was one of the team's star pitchers). The ball fields in Milton are quite nice, but, like any town, they are very heavily used, and consequently they get a bit of trash and litter strewn about.

This was not to be borne, at least not by Gwen and Barrett. During one game the two hatched a plan. They were walking in the woods on a little slope just above the ball field, when they saw some litter in the bushes. They took the litter to a big trash can and dumped it in. But, the litter was not gone; there was a lot more. They formed a patrol and began scouring the woodsy perimeter around the ball fields for more trash. It was dangerous work: thorns tried to impede their efforts, but they were not daunted by a few paltry cuts. (Although one of Gwen's still hurts a bit.)

Fate intervened on their patrol: Gwen's grandma and grandpa were walking by, heading towards the game. Gwen and Barrett said hi, and asked them if they could bring the newly-collected trash over to a nearby trash can. They said, why don't you ask to get a bag from the snack bar? It was a good idea, so Barrett went to get a bag, while Gwen ferreted out more litter. Barrett's foray was a success: he came back with more than a bag; he also had two clear plastic gloves. Two gloves among four hands might have posed a problem for some, but not for Gwen and Barrett: they each took one glove, and went about their business.

They filled their trash bag, and wandered down to the big trash barrel behind home plate. This was when the parents noticed some surprising things: (a) Gwen and Barrett had matching gloves, clear plastic ones, Gwen wearing it on her right hand, and Barrett on his left; (b) they were lugging a very full bag of trash; and (c) and they had very big, determined smiles on their faces. They knew why: they were saving the planet, right here and now, in a very real way.

They went for a second round of trash collection. The supply of trash was by no means exhausted, and they refilled their bag once again. After the second wave had been disposed of, they laid down their weapons of tidiness, happy to be out of thorn's reach for the rest of the night, just as the baseball game ended.

So, that is how the society came to be. With a little creative conversation, the name SOULS came about, and The Daughter, Gwen, has been recruiting others for it ever since.

This is the same Gwen who makes us think about questions rarely considered by 40-somethings, let alone 8 year olds. Her latest: "Dad, before people figured out language, how did they think?" Dad's feeble answer: "Wow Gwen, that is a really interesting question. I have no idea! Ask Mom!" (The Mom had a much longer answer, which Gwen could probably relate, but I had to go and watch the Bruins game that night.... ;-)