How can I respectfully stop a pagan from littering?

[FrodosPet]

I have a dear pagan friend who professes to love the Earth and hate the big polluting corporations.

But she is a smoker who thinks nothing of throwing cigarette butts, cellophane, even food wrappers out the window of a moving car, excusing it by saying everybody does it and it helps create litter cleaning jobs.

I am doing my best to be as non-patriarchal as I can be. I desperately try not to either tell women what to do, or to even make any kind of suggestion lest it be perceived as telling someone what to do.

But still, littering bothers me. Should I say something any stronger than I already have, or should I just accept that saying something, no matter how benevolent I think it may be, would only be met with negativity?

[rocktivity]

1. Throwing cigarette butts is illegal because it's a fire hazard

Last edited Mon Feb 15, 2021, 02:56 PM - Edit history (2)

And animals can eat the food wrappers. If a cop is watching, you could get pulled over and ticketed (or worse, if the cop mistakes the cigarette butt for a marijuana roach).


rocktivity

[FrodosPet]

2. I completely agree. That's why it bothers me

But I am the old and paranoid "big brother".

In her philosophy, bad things only happen when you talk or think about them happening. A positive energy field, free from negativity and worry, is all that is required to ward off undesirable events.

[LiberalEsto]

3. I am a female pagan

There is nothing patriarchal about expressing your opinion that littering is wrong.

Anyone who truly loves Mother Earth shows respect by refraining from dumping litter anywhere except in appropriate receptacles. In a car, a lit cigarette butt should be extinguished in the ashtray, not tossed out where it could land in another person's vehicle and cause injury, or start a deadly forest fire.

It sounds to me like this person fails to respect her own body by smoking cigarettes. If she can't respect her own body and health, let alone the health of people nearby, how can she respect Mother Earth?


Methinks your friend needs to grow up and stop thinking the world is her ashtray.

[icymist]

5. Great advice.

I feel honored to know that such people follow this forum!

[Ilsa]

4. I think you should approach her.

Everybody doesn't do it, and picking up litter is not a productive use of taxpayer funds. She should respect others' space on Mother Earth by cleaning up after herself.

[icymist]

6. So, your pagan sister is a problem!

What is her pagan affiliation? What is her practice? I didn't get that from the OP. Is she Caos? Or another that has no use for the Earth? Why is she so eager to pollute (Gaia) herself? Is she even mature?

[magical thyme]

7. Ask her if she would dump her trash in the middle of somebody else's living room for them to pick up

or dump her butts in somebody else's yard to start a fire? After all, that gives the fire dept. jobs. And every place is somebody's home and she is dumping her trash in their homes and endangering their lives.

An acquaintance rescued a pregnant BLM mare and was headed home with her when the trailer she was pulling started bouncing and swaying. Looking in the rear view mirror, she could see flames shooting out of the trailer.

She was able to pull over safely, and got the mare out of the fire as quickly as she could. She spent several hours late at night holding that poor, suffering horse by the side of the highway, waiting for a vet to arrive. The mare could not be saved and had to be put down.

Per the police, apparently some (insert perjorative here) had tossed a butt out the window while passing her trailer. It was sucked into the trailer and started the hay or bedding on fire and burned that poor mare alive.