I appreciate what you’re doing!

In the vast underground world of NYC, I was rushing from subway to subway, and saw a lady with a paper bag full of plastic Poland spring water bottles.  It reminded me of my days as the unofficial recycling girl at the large Fortune 500 company that I worked for.  Well, I only did one site, but on a weekly basis there was plenty of recycling and trash to be personally walked to my car, driven to the recycling dumpster at my apartment, and dumped in.

As I watched her from behind, I really wanted to encourage her to keep it up.  It’s a thankless job, and it’s easy to just say, “forget it!  What’s a handful of bottles anyways… " so, well, as I brushed by her I said “hey!  I appreciate what you’re doing! Thank you.”  and then went on my merry way.  It felt good to say that… although there was a side of me that wanted to say: “great job, but why don’t you get yourself a reusable bottle and drink tap.  NYC tap is great,” but I held back, as I myself was holding a plastic bottled drink in my hand.  One step at a time.  We’ve got to celebrate the small things… the small wins.  Change takes time, and she was doing her part.  So, thank you lady!

I know they teach you not to talk to strangers, but, we live in a global community.  And to be a community, you’ve gotta be open to listening, seeing, and talking to others.  So I encourage y’all to go and see, listen, and talk.  I mean, be smart, but treat people with dignity, and my motto... stolen from my past job... assume positive intent first.  I guess it's less relevant a motto for this instance, but perhaps for the homeless man I talked to yesterday.