Lent Day 22: Wise

Last week, as I sat on the couch (where I currently spend a lot of time because it is where I feed our daughter), I watched as our trash was picked up at least two different times. I say at least, because I thought I heard a garbage truck earlier in the morning and then I watched two garbage trucks pick up our trash. TWO. We don't make that much trash, in fact we have the smallest trash can available besides an insert that makes the space even smaller. And yet I watched it with my own eyes. I wondered if the second guy was aware that he had dumped air into his truck.

The ironic thing is that our neighbors across the street, at times, have been completely forgotten and they have had to call to have their trash picked up the next day. So, to watch two separate garbage trucks pick up our garbage made me laugh.

This week I was once again on the couch as the garbage truck pulled up. I watched as the garbage man (yes it was a man, I am not being sexist here) pulled up so that our trash can was parallel to his door. This was a curious thing- that is not how the garbage gets picked up. He opened his door and leaned out so that he could lift the lid of our garbage can. Then he shut his door, pulled forward and allowed the side lift to pick up our garbage can and dump the contents into the truck. I smiled. Obviously he was aware of what had happened last week as well and was checking to see if our trash had already been picked up or not. Having seen that there were still bags of garbage in the can, he continued with his job.

As I think about it now, there really wasn't a reason for him to check. It probably would have been easier for him to pick up the garbage whether there was anything in there or not. But something about his actions spoke "wisdom" to me. He was aware of the mistake that had been made and was going to act accordingly. Wise actions. Brought to you by my garbage can.