Going the Extra Mile

The Split Second-In Consideration of Others in These Trying Times

I still have not given up trying to get my book, The Split Second:  In Consideration of Others or Look Up from the Phone and How to Deal with Rudeness in Others published, but I  still draw on much inner faith. Thank you to you folks who have been supportive. The time of the year to make pitches to agents is coming up—after Labor Day and I shall be ready to go for another round. Here is what I hope is a smaller blog.

This morning, as I walked to the local Metro Rail, I noticed around several trash receptacles along the way, much trash that was not thrown in these receptacles. In all fairness, there are some homeless folks who camp out around a few of these locations. Still, I am a bit dismayed when folks do not bother to throw trash where it should be thrown. I also think of folks who let their trash from what they have eaten after having enjoyed (or not enjoyed)  while viewing a movie in a local theatre just remain in aisles. Students used to tell me when I brought the subject up, “But there are people who work in that theatre who are paid to clean up the mess.” I would always say something like, “Yeah, but why make a mess in the first place?” This is what bothers me when folks think there is always someone to clean up after them. I wonder why we all cannot “go the extra mile” and just find the place where we can throw trash away. I would also comment to smokers that they can do the same thing when they have finished smoking that cigarette rather than “flicking” it in the air where it will land on the ground somewhere (I might add here that when I was 12, I stepped on a lit cigarette butt at the beach; it did not feel good to do).

The same concept can be expressed when we leave a supermarket or any shopping area and decide not to put the shopping cart back in area where they are collected. We have all seen where shopping carts are in that one parking space, we were hoping to pull our cars into at a given moment. That can be frustrating as well when a given shopping cart can roll right into someone’s car making a sizeable dent. Yes, how nice it is to “go the extra mile” rather than “kicking the can down the road” and making someone else clean up after our messes. Somehow, we just might have a nicer society if we utilize “The Split Second” and clean up after ourselves and put trash and other objects where they are supposed to be rather than think, “someone else will do it.” Wouldn’t it be better to “go the extra mile?”