Law of Garbage Truck

A few years back my friend’s dad had sent us all a nice story about the Garbage truck. It was a nice and simple read. Though it made sense and made me think as to how many a times this situation has come up in life, it dint make too much of a difference then as life had not opened up itself on me.

There have been so many instances recently when the thought of Garbage truck made sense but I could never feel the impact until recently when I tried contemplating as to why certain unhappy things are happening to me and that’s when the realization dawned upon me about “The law of the Garbage truck”

So when I had a quick read at the short story, what made me wonder was how long can one keep escaping the garbage? What do you do when the life puts you in a corner and then there is nothing but to take the dump? Is there or would there be any solution to this Garbage truck any time?

While I am still trying to find solution to these, have a nice read!!

[Original story, by David J. Pollay]

Sixteen years ago I learned an important life lesson, in the back of a New York City taxi cab.

I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station.  We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded,
and missed the other car by mere inches! The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and started yelling bad words at us.  My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy.  And I mean, he was actually friendly!

So, I asked him, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and could've sent us to the hospital!"

And this is when my taxi driver told me about what I now call, "The Law of Garbage Trucks."

"Many people are like Garbage Trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it, and if you let them, they'll dump it on you.  When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally. Instead, just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happier because you did."

Wow.  That really got me thinking about how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? AND, how often do I then take their garbage and spread it onto other people: at work, at home, on the streets?  It was that day I resolved, "I'm not going to do it anymore."

Since then, I have started to see Garbage Trucks everywhere.  Just as the kid in the Sixth Sense movie said, "I see dead people," I can now say, "I see Garbage Trucks." :)

I see the load they're carrying ... I see them coming to drop it off.  And like my Taxi Driver, I don't make it a personal thing; I just smile, wave, wish them well, and I move on.

Courtesy, lost in modernization

Having watched innumerous people barging through a small aisle in my office motivated me to write this post.

The aisle is wide only for one person to walk across the room towards the café or the rest rooms. You can imagine the number of people who would be going to and fro in a day.

Every time there is another person at the end of the aisle while I am walking, I stop to allow that person or atleast give the person a chance to decide whether they would want to walk or wait for me to walk across.

There have been so many cases when there is a “Gentleman” at the other end of the aisle and who refuses to wait for the lady at the other end and just barges in. So I am being a person who wouldn’t want to get anywhere close these “Gentlemen” wait until they slowly drag themselves to the other end of the aisle.  

What puts me off is the way they do this. Some people ignore the fact that there is a lady, forget the lady there is another person waiting for you to move your weight and are busy on their phone texting messages to people or they are searching for some one across the room. I understand that theses are “the busy” people who can’t take their eyes off their phone or their searching but they even lack the manners to thank the person who waited for them all along!! Well forget the word “thanks”.

There have been cases where in malls people have tried to move in between tiny space between the shelves and refused to even excuse themselves from doing so. They don’t mind the limited space between them and a person of another sex. Guess that’s the fun they get out of the small room space.

I wonder where the “gentle” has faded in these “Gentle men” or the courtesy to wait for a lady. Most of them seem to have become Robots sitting in front of another Robot in the making who wouldn’t know what is the behavior expected out of them.