A New River Experience

I commonly referred to the LA River as the LA trickle, not realizing the ecological and cultural significance the river had and has for my community, and what I could learn from a trash cleanup of the LA River. Unfortunately, I didn't get to stay at FOLAR very long, but I certainly enjoyed the time I did and learned quite a bit.

When I got there, it was already starting to heat up, and despite remembering to bring my sunglasses, I regretted not bringing my hat along. I joined up with my class, and after receiving gloves and bags, we set out to rid the river of trash, thereby cleaning it. Because of our class' special art focus, we also had a separate, smaller trash bag, this one used for "cool trash" that we found––interesting pieces of trash that could be used for our final piece of group artwork. More than just finding a binary distinction between trash and cool trash, even the trash I put in the bag to throw away was interesting. Every piece of trash offers a glimpse into someone's life: the handle of a pink stroller, decomposing under a bunch of leaves; the head of a flashlight (this one did go to the cool trash pile, however); a torn dress that might once have been beautiful. It allows us to experience what it's like to have this quasi-voyeuristic, amateurish anthropological gaze that sees into alternative realities that we simply cannot experience. There are a few things that the average human being simply cannot comprehend: absolute nothingness, as in, what the universe was like before it came into existence in any manner that you so choose to believe, and someone else's reality. Someone may be able to come close, imagining something clear extending on forever but there is no light and there is nothing; absolutely nothing at all. Or, empathy, trying to be collectively humanistic as possible and join into one reality, so that two people feel the same thing. But look into someone's eyes, and try to imagine how they're saying you. Or ask someone to look at a color that you're looking, but think to yourself "they see this color differently than I do." No matter how close you are to them, you will feel some form of alienation and realization that you cannot truly experience what someone else's reality is like. Finding people's trash is finding a way to circumvent the existential barrier between you and someone else's reality.

I also really loved learning firsthand about the actual ecology and green that the LA River is, and how, despite being encased in a concrete block, it's quite beautiful, introspective trash thinking was really my main takeaway. That was my experience and my evolution of thought as I picked up new, old, dirty, clean, and everything in between of trash.