[Embraer]

The other day I went on a bike ride with a buddy (pedal, not motorized) to the near-east side of my city. There's a neat neighborhood down there called Woodruff Place that was an affluent suburb in the late 1800's. It only consists of three streets, each with a grass median, filled with sculptures and fountains. It truly does take you back in time. That's beside the point, though.

Anyway, we roll down and stop at one of the fountains to grab a drink of water and just chit chat. After about 5 minutes of sitting around, we noticed a kid that looked like he just graduated college this week. He's walking door to door to the big Victorian homes with a clipboard in his hand. He sees us looking at him, and starts to yell at us from across the street. We're sitting next to a fountain, and the rush of water makes it impossible to understand what he's saying.

He proceeds to come over and talk to us, and as he's walking over, I try and figure out what he's collecting signatures for. He comes over and starts to make small talk with us. About 30 seconds into it, he cleverly (actually, poorly) sees our bikes (both single speed messenger bikes) and asks us if we like to ride our bikes in the forest. I kind of chuckle and mention that they're really for road use only. As it turns out, he's collecting signatures/money for some fake sounding lobbying group that wants to save the forests in Indiana. I humor him, and let him give his spiel, of course which culiminates in him asking me for the monetary donation. After about 3 minutes of him telling me about trees, the forests, and how important it is to save them, I ask him a simple question....

"Zack, have you ever planted a tree?" (He gave me his name as he walked up, and of course, he had red hair. All kids named Zack have red or blond hair)

At that point, he looks at me like lobsters are crawling out of my ears. "Uh....well actually no, but it's something I've always wanted to do."

I proceed to tell him that I've hand-planted over 5000 native-to-Indiana trees on my parents property. His jaw drops.

I then ask him if he thinks it's ironic that he's walking around with a clipboard of papers (conveniently made from trees). He just kind of laughs and says "You know, I didn't even think of that."

Talk about a self-righteous activity. Instead of being proactive, going out and doing something about the trees (such as planting some), he's spending his time, walking around collecting signatures and collecting money that goes to a who-knows-what organization. Such a classic, lazy, self-righteous mindset. And the sad part is, he probably thinks he's genuinely doing a great thing to help a cause.

Ok, time to go for another ride....