I took a walk this morning, and when I came to a corner I noticed that some detritus was blocking up the sewer grate, and the water puddling in the gutter from the previous day’s tropical storm was trickling in much slower than it should as a result. I moved a clump of the gunk with my shoe, and the water started flowing into the grate like a dam being burst open.
The small things we do every day, or could or should do, make a difference. We don’t always see them, like the water draining from the street so nobody has to step in a puddle, but good affects more good in the same way that bad begets more bad.
Having started a walking routine in the past month, I have noticed that some things we do haphazardly have a way of reminding us of the sin. For example, I have walked past the same discarded, flattened, dried up former water bottle in the street. Somebody threw it out a car window, no doubt, and at some point a street sweeper will retrieve it without anybody running the risk of catching any germs from it, but just because an object has left your hands doesn’t mean it magically vanishes. That bottle moved very little over a three-day period; only a few inches after a vehicle’s tire kicked it around slightly.
For reasons I don’t understand, we seem to have a strange unwritten rule in our country that, once we finish with a container, it must leave our hands immediately. This normally means dropping it within the next step or two we take on the street. This happens to bottles, cans, food wrappers, and even the contents of entire former fast food meals, not to mention store purchases in which the buyer has removed the wrappings and placed them in the bag before dropping it.
I have never checked to see if any receipts are in those puffy pieces of trash, but if you worry about those things, and you’re a doofus, be sure not to leave one in there. Some enterprising con artist (or, if you’re paranoid, the FBI) might trace you via your receipt or your DNA on the inside contents.
It really shouldn’t be a problem to carry a cup until you reach a trash container, or until you get home. Besides, who invented this need for cash-and-carry beverages anyway? The companies who invent the liquid and don’t seem to care about what people do after consuming the product. The days of glass bottle deposits are long gone, but it saved us from tons of plastic waste in the oceans. On that waste sitting squished in the street.
What’s wrong with moving a twig off the pavement, closing something that’s obviously flapping open for no reason, or waving another vehicle through to do a left turn? Apparently it’s some sort of pride thing, but I think that it really does little for a person to not do them, while it’s satisfying to feel good about actually doing them.
Last week one of my plants had a bent stem, and the bloom on the end was bound to die, so I grabbed a twist tie and splinted it, and it has continued blooming through the week. That’s the reward that comes with attention to the little things, and I won’t stop doing them, even if others are cranky or stubborn.
Let’s just hope that street sweeping is done before the next time I walk by.
Oh, and yes it does also apply to wearing a mask.
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