Locked In

Ever notice how one good idea will take years to germinate and spread around to benefit all, while one really bad idea will take off like Marjorie T. Greene at a free hairdye giveaway?

Case in point: at the Grand Canyon, couples are so taken by the impressive romantic view that they a) stand and enjoy it for a good long while, soaking in the majesty of nature and making memories to last a lifetime   or   b) they hook a padlock  - a "love lock" onto the fence and throw the key down to earth below. That pure drippy symbolism means their love is here forever to have and to hold etc etc.

But the National Park Service wants to point out that endangered California condors that live in northern Arizona and southern Utah - home of the Grand Canyon Nat'l Park - love to nibble on shiny objects, such as keys.  And the Park Service also reminds all that this dangerous practice is also a form of graffiti and littering.

Love locks are a problem all over. In Paris, a footbridge known as Pont des Arts (Bridge of the Arts) had so many Master Locks and Abus Locks and antique Slaymakers locked onto it, the structural integrity of the bridge was being compromised, which, if left unchecked, would let to the bridge collapsing, or "c'llapsing," as one of our local news anchors misstates it.

Park Rangers are kept busy removing the locks

Keys can become lodged in a condor's digestive tract

 

California condors nearly went extinct during the 1980s; they are scavengers, feed on a lot of roadkill, and that introduced metals into their bodies, leading to death. There were but 22 of them left in 1982, but 40+ years of careful conservation have brought those numbers back. There are said to be 350 condors in the wild now and another 200 in captivity.

So don't be a dodo and toss metal keys around, and don't fall in with the Love Lock crowd. Instead, grow your hair to luxuriant lengths and donate it to Locks Of Love - a much better way to make a lasting statement.