Parklands

I mean to offend no one and so my apologies are first. Forgive me for everything I say. But, I have this memory/dream that in Europe the forests are wonderfully orderly. I don't recall what's true and what I am imagining about those forests. The image I have is that, over time, it is as if a gigantic comb was raked over/through these European forests such that downed or dead trees and all of the overgrown, impenetrable and chaotic scrub or underbrush, was cleaned out with an orderly elegant park of a forest remaining.

I do remember years ago when I was at San Francisco's Muir Woods Giant Redwood Forest, that it was very much the same thing. It was as if someone had taken a giant comb and cleaned out all the gnarly underbrush and presented to mankind this marvelous park which engendered humility and gratitude to God for such a tearfully wonderful and magnificently beautiful sight.

Now let's skip over the arguments about how, if we cleaned all of the forests in the United States, that there wouldn't be hiding space for innumerable creepy crawlies or even cute bunnies. I am not suggesting that this orderly pruning be done to all of the forests of the United States, but I am talking about enhancing the beauty where we do have our homes, suburbs, cities, throughways, and highways.

So then what I am suggesting is that on a volunteer basis, parents, their children and all willing people begin to clean up their (our) urban and suburban properties not only of the trash, paper and cigarette butts, but also to clear away the gnarly, overgrown, and chaotic underbrush and choking vines to create a much more park-like appearance of beauty so that each and all of us will enjoy this tribute of beauty to God and for all people.

H. Robert Silverstein, MD
Hartford, CT