Oddball Options

I don't get it...or, at least, I can't imagine how to get around it! So much of (any) society's doing-of-something can get so-o-o tangled up in its' own doing, that...sometimes the simplest, most effective things simply don't get done; the time and attention (not to mention the $$ and the "credit/praise") going to other projects that have more visible, familiar actualizations.


'N' along comes me, or some other Oddball (in my case, may I say, "Odd-Belle"?! *LOL*)...
and points out, "Oh! Lookee here; you could fix this bit by...", some oddball, jerry-rigged idea that involves more people (volunteers who'd "make a Day" of it) than money and machines. Phffpbt!! Not a snowball's chance at a backyard, summer barbeque, eh?!
Before an Idea gets anything like a well-looked-at airing, the territorial-Imperative and the Big-Elephant/small-watering-hole (I stole that!) Effects kick in, and off we go, argy-bargying everything but the actual Idea. (That is, if one is not summarily--figuratively--"escorted" from the hall for Out-Of-Order-ly proceeding!) Some of the Ideas may be great, but they're just "not the Way things are done", and too often not taken seriously (at best!). *sigh*


There's a wee-bit waterway that meanders down hill, from up above where I live, on down to the harbour on the ocean. A few years ago, community efforts saw it get all fixed up to serve as a scenic, local walk-way; walkers, strollers, folks out for their constitutionals, etc. It's very popular and well-used everyday, in all seasons. Within the last couple of years, I've seen things in the local paper, reporting that a "group" had formed to "befriend" the waterway, and I've since seen at least one or two more newspaper story-promos. Currently, it's been closed off to all recreational traffic and the big machines, back-hoes, etc., are all over it, regrading the walkway and re-enforcing the banks with loads of heavy rock. All big-money projects, requiring "funding", etc., and usually pulled off by just a few "movers and shakers" in the community. It will be a wonderful up-grade when it's finished, and folks will enjoy it all the more. It's green, it's keen, it's...well, you know what I mean!


So, what's the peeve?It's in what I don't see...
For years (well, forever, actually) vandals and "pranksters", "kids" (and, in my opinion, probably more than a few of their butt-lazy "Elders and (should know) Betters"), etc., have been pitching trash, grocery carts, bicycles, et al, into the waterway, and I'm not too sure that even raw, household sewage doesn't still enter it, at some point upstream. The idea keeps nagging me that...none of these "efforts" involve the participation of everyday residents; the groups that get-these-things-done never seem to provide much opportunity for the rest of the community to get involved. (And it's grand to see it fixing up so "pretty", but maybe some additional attention to clean...?!


Seems to me that...a call/campaign for a couple of Clean-Up Saturdays, a couple dozen fearless volunteers in hip-boots and wellies, and the loan of a few canoes, skiffs or dories, brought back from "the cottage" for the weekend...would go a long way towards a "pretty" that's more than "skin-deep". Combine it with a community pot-luck supper (volunteers fed free!), a later-on beer-tent and dance, and...well, what's so crazy about that?!

Most anybody can get gloves, ingenuity can come up with home-made grappeling hooks, somebody with a pick-up can make a Dump-run; a hard-day's-work-done-in-a-good-cause, supper and a good scrub-up, and dancing-with-your-Sweetie under the summer stars...! ('Round here, there's every probability of such turning into a lobster-pot feast or a mussels-bake!) Talk about value-added!


And yet...

If I wade in (and I've done it before, elsewhere), and try to insert "interesting ways" of doing one-off-type thingies...wa-a-ay more often than not, I wind up being yelled at, my ears slapped back, and consigned to a corner to stay out from underfoot; too much of that foolishness tends to make a body gun-shy.

What Can't You Do With It?

Ah, well now...I've had this blog up for awhile, now, and just keep circling and circling it; still wary but "keeping it in mind". Sometimes I tell myself it's just the getting familiar of it, a waiting for the urge to come upon me to write, get something off my mind...

Other times, it's more like a waiting for some "important/interesting" topic to occur to me, with an "Oh! Look at this!" perspective to it; like a discussing of something folks would be interested in and want to comment on, of general interest, etc.

But the realer truth is...if I start "blogging" and talking about some of the stuff that really gets me going...I'm bound to offend people--just about anybody, on some topics--and I can't even imagine surviving the negative feedbacks. Because I wouldn't, in the least, have intended to be offensive--ever; just being straight foreward and honest about (some) things, as I see them.

I don't want to simply avoid any controversy and stick to cutsey profiles of my cats, or how the (expletive deleted) weather is today (or any other day!)... On the other hand, neither do I want to turn this into a rant-stand, a screeching, caterwauling flood of dreck-and-drivel/sniff-and-snivel. Sometimes, though, things (perspectives, issues, etc.) just seem so one-sided; it's hard to imagine figuring it all out without any outside imput. What to do? Hmmmm....!?!