Do you ever see somebody doing something, or the remnants of their actions and wonder, “What exactly is or was their thought process here?” Do they not understand how things operate? Is it laziness or a lack of brainpower that doesn’t permit people to see how they’ve managed to screw up something reasonably simple?
For example, in our condo association, we have a trash transfer station. It contains two large dumpsters, one for regular trash and the other for recyclables. Pretty straightforward. How can you mess this up, right? Some of our members manage to. They don’t seem to know what is recyclable and what isn’t. It’s been explained to them repeatedly that somebody has to pick through the recycling dumpster, removing the inappropriate materials, and that there’s a cost involved in that. In fact, nationally, we’re finding recycling less and less profitable only because what we’re shipping to Asian countries that have recycling plants is “contaminated”, and the processors are no longer willing to take our stuff. Our solution is to dump plastics and assorted crap into the ocean, to the point where it’s destroying the oceans’ eco-systems. Way to go, people. But back to our transfer station, our landscape committee built a composting area, on the assumption that everyone understands how composting works. The idea here is that residents put whatever materials they have from lawn and garden clean-ups there, andover time it will decompose into usable compost. On a visit last week to dump some of my trash, I found that somebody clearly not understanding how “composting” works, left two large plastic bags of lawn refuse on the pile, and neatly stacked behind it were about a dozen plastic plant containers and two plastic window box liners. In an act of civil responsibility, I moved the bags and the containers into the dumpster area where they belonged. I also took a picture of it, and sent it to the chair of the landscape committee with the message, “Clearly much more work to be done”. I may have mentioned in a previous blog about the lady that was bringing back outdoor plants to the garden center across the street because her plants had died. Yes, you remember – she’s the one that went on a two-week cruise and nobody watered the plants while she was away. Perhaps if the cruise ship hadn’t fed her for two weeks, she’d begin to see how life’s master plan works.
We see incidences where people don’t connect dots all the time. The grocery stores have clearly marked “cart pens” scattered around the parking lot where you return the carts after unloading them, and most people seem to grasp their purpose. However, there are those that leave the carts “wherever”. I get particularly annoyed at the folks that leave them in the middle of handicapped parking spaces. If it’s the handicapped people themselves with mobility issues and can’t get to the cart pens, we all get that and sympathize. From time to time, though, I’ve seen perfectly healthy-appearing folks just wheeling their carts into theses parking spaces. Some even glance guiltily around to see if anyone’s watching them. I guess some might be thinking these spaces are closer to the store, and thus they’re helping the employees that go out to fetch them. Message to these people – NOT HELPFUL. Of course, there are people that really don’t get the concept of “handicapped”. On some level, they must figure “my shoulder hurts today – I’m handicapped”. “Handicapped” for them is a fluid term that could potentially apply on a given day. To them, I say . . . . I’m thinking, no. That’s not how it works.
I find that any number of drivers don’t realize that their cars are equipped with directional signals. This isn’t something new, people. Cars have come with them since, when, the 1940’s? I can understand those folks that learned to drive in 1925 and still think they have to stick their hands out of the window. The rest of us, however, just need to move a small lever. How hard is that? Signs like “Left Turn Only” or “No U Turn” don’t seem to apply to some drivers either.
We went with our friend Lady Peacock up to a specialty food outlet last week. I went in and got a few bottles and boxes of things we needed to restock. While Lady P was still roaming about the store and tasting everything in sight (and some that weren’t), I went back to the car to wait. One door had a large sign saying, “Please use other door”, with an arrowing point in the correct direction. It’s was amazing how many people came up to that door and, not reading the sign, shook the door handle. And the part I really liked is that they would then head toward the right entrance with a head shake or a look of disgust, as if it was somehow the door’s fault. On a funny side note, and speaking of unclear on the concept, Lady P, ever on the lookout to shave a pound here and there, was overheard on the phone recently placing a Starbucks drive-through order: “skimmed milk, extra whipped cream.” That, by the way, is the working title of the chapter on her dieting practices when I write her biography. Watch for my book signing tour.
I went out this morning to clear some leaves from the front steps. We’d just had a major storm, and leaves blew in everywhere. I didn’t do much because it was still windy, but the wet leave on the granite steps make me nervous that someone will slip and fall, and thus I become the defendant. So, I cleared them off, but didn’t bother with the terrace or porch. Later in the day, I had to go the store, and noticed my neighbors down the street out raking up leaves and trying to clean out their gardens. The leaves and plant refuse were blowing merrily and briskly around them, and they were struggling to gather everything up for bagging. Here’s a thought – wait until the wind dies down before raking leaves. In fact, there are a number of things one might not do in a stiff breeze, like scattering loose hay, shaking out a feather duster, or shoveling fluffy snow. It’s like a flight attendant pouring a glass of wine during turbulence, or watching first graders crossing the lunch room with bowls of soup. (I did see that once, and the image still sticks in my memory – the amusement part of the brain, which I believe is called the hilaribellum. In truth, the adults were dropped the ball on that one.) None of these are destined for success. Clue in to the concept here.
Finally, this item – torn once again from the news. A police officer has been court ordered to stay off Facebook after he “liked” a post by a victim. My wife has a friend who, similar to this officer, doesn’t seem to understand how social media works. She thinks it’s like email – a one-to-one correspondence. She also is unaware that, in forwarding an email, the recipient can view the entire string of correspondence, not just her last message. So too, the folks – particularly teenagers, who post graphic pictures of themselves, only to find out that their “notoriety” has spread far beyond their intended audience of one, don’t clearly understand how this works. You’re on the internet, people. It goes everywhere and stays there. As a school teacher, I was always amazed (and I might say just a bit amused) by students’ street-smarts combine with internet ignorance. Like the student that stole computer projectors from school, and then posted them online for sale, complete with the school district’s identifying tags. Of course, students that did bad things could never resist talking about it to someone, and that’s almost always how they got caught. There was the student that called in a bomb threat to the high school from the donut shop down the street, while a plainclothes police officer happened to be standing in line for his coffee and overheard. (Sadly, that’s not made up either– it actually happened back a few years back in my teaching days.) Do people not see this coming when they broadcast their acts to everyone they know? Apparently not. They always seem to be completely surprised when the authorities close in. Human communication – so many are still “unclear on the concept”.
I'm Thinking...No! 