One Cigarette Butt at a Time

I confess to not understanding smokers at all.  I can relate to smoking as an addiction and appreciate that it is a compulsive behavior.   My workplace is smoke free, including buildings and grounds.  But the sidewalks and driveways approaching the front entrance are littered with cigarette butts from smokers who discard their butts on the ground.  You've surely seen smokers toss their butts indiscriminately out windows of cars or while strolling down streets.  While working last weekend and crossing the driveway from the Emergency Department to my office, I passed a newly planted flower garden littered with cigarette butts.  I've passed this particular spot dozens of times before when it was bare dirt.   A burst of anger and energy came over me, and I marched to my office, put on latex gloves that are kept there for housekeeping, and stormed back to the flower garden.  I then spent the next few minutes picking up butts that had been planted like seeds next to the flowers, in the rock beds nearby and on the sidewalk.  Today, three days later, I passed by again and no new butts!  I feel like the young man in the starfish story, making a difference, one cigarette butt at a time.  If you don't know the story, here it is. 

The Starfish

Strolling along the beach, a woman catches sight of a young man who appears to be dancing at the water's edge. The young man bends down, straightens to his full height and then casts his arm out in an arc. Drawing closer, she sees that the sand is littered with starfish and he is throwing them, one by one, back into the sea.

She says, ‘There are stranded starfish as far as the eye can see. What difference can saving a few of them possibly make?’

Smiling, he stoops down and tosses another starfish out over the water, saying, ‘It made a difference to that one.’