The New Ecologists

As I was driving to the church today I had a curious experience. Immediately in front of me was a young man driving in his light blue Toyota Prius. It was politically correct with its hybrid engine whirling away as we drove down the street. I must have seem terribly out of place and out of connection in my Camry with the regular gasoline burning engine.

He drove with the windows rolled down, while I—with a much more sensitive demeanor drove with my windows up and the air conditioner cranked as high as I could get it. I despise arriving with my black shirts dripping in sweat. The young man was admirable in all of his comportment until I spied the chink in his armor. I should have noticed it sooner.

He left arm was flopped out the window with a cigarette clutched between his fingers. There is something so inelegant in the way a young man holds a cigarette in his claws. He usually draws his fingers in close like he's grasping a baseball. A woman, contrariwise, will extend her fingers so that the noxious tube of tobacco seems to float against her hand. This youngster was definitely more of the bear claw type.

Hadn't he heard of the dangers of smoking in school. I'm assured by my children that they are told that by their teachers. Has he not heard the alarm sounded from the media at night warning him of the perils he was entering? He obviously heard the necessity of conserving energy and fuel with the heightened shrieks of the eco-maniacal left drumming their cadences into a religious overture. That did seem to make it past his ears. But smoking? I'm afraid that he probably heard that with the same ears that passed over the sex ed material.

Then I saw the truth. I was dumbfounded. I can't believe that I hadn't realized it before. We pulled up next to the red light and casually… calmly… he tossed his cigarette butt out the window onto the street. Hmmm. He had been bullied into being ecologically wise in his car purchase but when it really boiled down to being consistent in his life, he just tossed it all out the window.

Maybe I'm a cynic. I don't think so. But I found tremendous hope in the future in his little demonstration (as well as a little disgust). I suddenly became hopeful that an entire generation hasn't been lost, that they will be able to see more clearly as the grow up. Maybe they haven't been completely brainwashed with the silliness that the schools teach now.

I even allowed myself the secret pleasure of a new mental image. Someday, when he has learned to think for himself, when he has come to see all of the tomfoolery and buffoonery and preachiness of the left he'll simply come to a stop light and toss it out the window.