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Community Corner

Opinion: Exercise Amid the Environment

Please take your trash with you

I wonder, sometimes, how the environment around us plays into our workout.

By that, I mean the surroundings as you jog, walk, take part in your morning exercise boot camp, and more.

There are occasions when my wife Lucille, daughter Stefanie and me rise early and head to Brookdale Park to walk the cushioned track in the middle of the park. While there, we circle and sometimes come in contact with women and men performing exercises under the tutelage of boot camp instructors, or courteously switch lanes to make way for walkers or joggers whom we share the track with.

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Occasional it is as that, as we walk, we come upon something that has fallen out of the trees that bookend the concrete stands. Don’t ask me to describe what I see, for I’m not a vegetation or tree expert, but I can tell you that, beyond acorns, I can only take a look see and say, “What is that?”

The thing that bothers me the most that I do recognize is the garbage “littering” (pun intended) the grounds and metal stands near the baseball backstops neighboring the parking lots. Plastic water bottles and empty water jugs in the gallon size left there from, I assume, the prior evening.

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In the past, prior to my walking the track with my family, I would park and walk the park blacktop – its streets and walking paths – and even ventured out of the park to walk the neighborhood roads. I didn’t back then park my car facing the baseball diamond, but I do now, so that my wife and I can see when Stefanie is heading back towards our car following her walk. Therefore, the litter is in plain view.

Okay, maybe just maybe I’m being a bit much. But I don’t buy arguments that the nearby garbage pails were probably full the night before, or that the empty containers were just forgotten. There’s often far too many of them to be forgotten and, if those pails are full, find another (if you can) or take the litter with you.

Also – and this may be a valid argument – many reading this might say, “If it bothers him so much, why doesn’t he just throw the stuff out himself?” Perhaps, but why should I? Or, “The park people get paid for that; let them do it.”

Is there something wrong with any of the above opinions, including mine?

I will say this. The garbage left behind should not and, indeed, does not hinder my morning walking. You don’t blame external influences for stopping you from getting something done, and that includes any type of working out. You want that lower blood pressure and cholesterol, flatter midsection and waist, to fit into that new outfit or old clothes, you get it done regardless.

But I do think it’s a shame that all areas of the park can’t be more litter-free.

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