Saving sand dollars

I have long since felt that people reveal their true nature by how they treat the most seemingly insignificant creatures. With disdain, ambivalence or compassion...

A few weeks ago, I was at a beautiful, windy and scarcely populated beach here in Sarasota. I had been told it was a perfect beach to treasure hunt for sand dollars. It was!

Wading out into the gulf, I found dozens of the beauties with my feet, just below the sand. A few others around me were finding them too.

As I carried my handful back to the shore, two women stopped me and kindly told me that the ones I had gathered were still alive. They told me how to tell which were dead and okay to keep. They said I could do whatever I wished, they just wanted to let me know. My Mom, who had also scavenged an armful, dropped them instantly and thanked the women for letting her know. I was a bit hesitant but after a mini internal grumble, I dropped them to the gulf bottom.

Another person in my party had heard the advice but taken them to the shore already, saying that it was just a few measly sand dollars and it wasn't hurting anyone.

Now my mission in this is not to be a big sand dollar saving hippie--though I would not mind if that point got across, but to think about how that type of thinking can do such great damage. Just think if everyone had that mindset. What would it do to our earth? Sadly too many people, too many corporations act out of this same line of reasoning.

It is just one. Just a few. Just a few don't matter. That is absolutely not true.

It is just one tiny creature in that beautiful sand dollar, but my quality of life really isn't any better if I bleach it to death so I can put it in my bathroom.

Here is to CHANGE.

As a feminist woman, why should I give a damn if men get involved in the pursuit of a gender equitable society? Why should I care about how men view feminism?

Because without men on board, nothing will ever change.