Love the earth? Love the park.
A world without parks would be, well, like a life without sunshine. Wherever you live on this crowded planet, I hope you have a favorite, nearby park.
My earliest favorite was Nashville's Percy Warner Park, where Sunday afternoon picnics were highlights of this Depression kid's childhood. Today the Warner Parks include several thousand acres of trails, athletic fields, overlooks and golf courses -- the largest municipally-administered parks in Tennessee -- but to my 4-year-old mind, an afternoon at "persywannerpark" was a time of bliss.
So to see the 4-year-olds who regularly romp around San Francisco's little urban jewel, Mountain Lake Park, is nostalgic joy. Mountain Lake is part of the Presidio National Park, which you and I, citizens all, have owned since the Sixth Army moved out.
For this writer, dozens of Significant Others preceded my fully committed love affair with Mountain Lake Park: Hanover (VA) Courthouse, Bryan Park in Richmond, Va., Atlanta's Chastain and Piedmont parks, and a long list of occasional others. But with Mountain Lake and me, it's a forever thing. For better or for worse. Visiting grandchildren loved the playground, serenity rises from the lake and the Parcourse fitness trail beats any expensive gym or meditative yoga class all to heck.
This is why there was no question about it when the pretty, young Presidio Trust woman asked. I took The Pledge.
Behind the drive to get park people to take The Pledge is a story probably like the story of your own favorite: park abuse. Despite their extraordinary kindness and generosity -- play space, clean air, quiet shade, assorted nourishment to our souls -- parks tend not to receive goodness in kind. More frequently what they get includes cigarette butts, discarded hamburger wrappers and an overabundance of well-fed pigeons. In Mountain Lake's case, abuse over the centuries also included a toxic accumulation of runoff from Highway #101 which unfortunately runs along one border of the lake. But thanks to our tax dollars and the good work of the Presidio Trust, the lake has been undergoing a multi-year restoration. It may not get all the way back to the pristine waters from which the Spaniards, and countless Native Americans before them, happily drank, but every day it gets better. Fascinating to watch.
If you love a park, you may want to generate a pledge campaign of your own. Small children were lining up at Mountain Lake for instructions and bumper stickers ("Love Mountain Lake") -- and earnestly taking The Pledge. Which reads:
"I pledge:
To protect the wild animals that live at Mountain Lake by allowing them to find their own natural foods.Not to abandon unwanted pets or plants at Mountain Lake or other park sites.
To share what I've learned about how to keep Mountain Lake healthy, and encourage others to take this pledge."
Earth Day might have slipped by recently, but it's never too late to love your park.