Recently while walking in my neighborhood, I passed two coupon mailers scattered on the side of the road that I surmised had slipped from the weekly recycling pick-up load.

I impulsively passed right by them. A few moments later, I remembered how many times I, a former Cubmaster, volunteered to pick up trash with our Cub Scout troop at a local park.

Concurrently, I heard my mom’s thick accent, “See garbage; pick up!”

From a young age, I remember my mom picking up any piece of trash she saw on the sidewalk or in the street, whether it was a candy wrapper, piece of yarn, old shoe sole, or whatever else was discarded. She would purposefully dispose of it in a nearby receptacle, taking it upon herself to keep our planet clean.

Most times when she was on “trash duty,” she’d scold me as if I were the culprit who dumped the garbage.

“Dirty pig!” she’d shout.

Okay, ma! Okay! I said out loud during my walk, my voice thick with guilt, unable to erase the memories.

I performed a U-turn and picked up the two scraps of paper, brought them home and disposed of them.

I am fortunate to have neighbors who are responsible and clean up after themselves. However, this is not the case in all areas. I was recently shocked to see piles of old garbage, including Styrofoam, old tires, and whiskey bottles, behind a strip mall. This saddened me because I believe that people who do not clean up after themselves are not mentally “clean,” and their messiness inside themselves is simply reflected on the outside.

I once knew a therapist who worked at a hospital for the criminally insane. She told me that the first indication that a patient was getting better was that he or she had started taking care of their hygiene and cleaning their environment. This is because taking care of oneself is a sign of self-respect, and self-respect is essential for making positive changes in one’s life.

Additionally, a business owner once told me that he would meet prospective employees in the parking lot before bringing them inside his office to interview them. He wasn’t looking for a perfect car, but he was looking for someone who took care of their belongings. He believed that if someone couldn’t take care of their own car, they were unlikely to take care of their job duties either.

I think both of these stories illustrate the importance of taking responsibility for our actions and our environment, both big and small. Our character is not defined by our worst moments, but by the choices we make every day.

Viktor E. Frankl, Austrian psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, wrote, “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”

This quote brings us back to the harsh reality: If we want to live a meaningful life, we must take responsibility for our actions and for the world around us.

I also thought about how pietas, a Roman virtue that is often translated as “piety,” has a broader meaning than religious devotion. It can also be translated as “responsibility,” “sense of duty,” “loyalty,” “tenderness,” “goodness,” “pity,” “compassion,” “kindness,” “dutiful conduct” and “devotion.”

In ancient Rome, pietas was considered to be one of the most important virtues. It was a virtue that was expected of all citizens, regardless of their social status or religious beliefs. Pietas was seen as the foundation of a strong and healthy society.

I believe that pietas is still a relevant virtue today. We may not worship the same gods and goddesses as the ancient Romans, but we still have a responsibility to our fellow human beings and to our planet. By expressing pietas in our own lives, we can make the world a better place. We, too, can find meaning and purpose in our own lives.

In the end, what defines us is not how much we preach about faith, but how willing we are to bend down and pick up and throw away a stranger’s Mounds Chocolate Bar wrapper.