The Do Better

Last year I took a job in the city, downtown Atlanta. It wasn’t really where I wanted to be; the lengthy commute was hell. I took the job as a contract, it was supposed to be for six months, but within a month I was told that I needed to take a permanent role as they’re out of funding to pay for the contract dollars. Since I had been looking for work with no success for six months, I decided to count my blessings and I took the job. I had been learning a lot lately about counting my blessings. I was thinking about it a lot. Being grateful for those things I have, especially after losing my career position after 17 years. I was starting over and was going to learn to appreciate what I did have. At least, driving in the car for more than three hours a day provides time where you can listen to podcasts and think.

This day I was doing a lot of thinking while driving, a light snowfall was barely visible fluttering past the windshield like tiny fly’s, it was cold out this morning. I was approaching my exit, right in the heart of the city, 249C and there were a number of homeless camped out under the bridge running over the freeway. I got to thinking about the amount of litter that I see every day when parking and walking to my building. The city provides trash cans, they’re on almost every corner, but trash cans work under the assumption that someone cares about litter enough to put it in the can, and not everyone does. My minds always running. For some reason I remembered that while keeping warm watching the football game, I ran out of firewood and needed to remember to have more delivered. I passed through a few more street lights and made my way into my monthly parking lot. I hurriedly started cramming all my things into my pack, phone, MacBook, glasses, keys, and a lunch from home. I wasn’t late to the office by any means, but still scrambled to get my coat on as I closed up the car.

Making my way towards the sidewalk, while double checking that I’d locked the car, I made my way to the first intersection. I heard a strange sound coming from the trash can at a nearby street post. Curious, I walked over and cautiously looked inside, there was something alive scurrying around the bottom. I focused my eyes and noticed; it was a rat. Reeling back, my first instinct was to move on quickly, “A damn rat!” I thought to myself and began to make my way past in a hurry. Waiting to cross the intersection at the light, I thought about my efforts to avoid doing things that I regret later in the day. Part of my commitment to appreciate the world around me and be grateful in it, is to be positive and help others. “Did that include helping a rat?”, I thought. “Ugh”, I said out loud as I turned around. I found a long stick nearby as I made my way back. I quickly dropped it in the trash can and though I couldn’t see anything, I could hear that it made its way up the stick and out of the can in a flash. Mostly, I didn’t see anything because I was practically running away.
I made my way into my building and was relieved to get out of the cold. Fumbling for my security badge to get through the turn styles, I couldn’t find it. I set my bag down on a nearby table and started searching through the zippered compartments. “Found it”, I thought to myself and I stuffed my belongings back into my pack and made my way through security and over towards the elevator. Just as I was getting on the elevator someone stopped me and said, “Sir, I think you left your cell phone on the table over there, is this your phone?” Relieved I said graciously, “Yes, that is my phone, thank you very much”. I thought to myself, “See helping that poor rat resulted in good karma and someone returned my lost phone! But then again, no”, I thought. It seems more like doing something good contributes to a pot of positive actions, like adding more ingredients to a stew in the crock pot. But I don’t think good things happen tit-for-tat or like an eye for an eye that can be traced back to a specific good action.

The next day, heading back to work again, I peered into the same trashcan and sure enough, there he was again sitting in the bottom of an empty can. A big wet rat and I thought to myself, “man that rat doesn’t learn!” Or maybe he did learn. He learned that he doesn’t need to worry because it will all work out eventually. Someone will deposit their trash; his belly will be filled and he’ll be able to make his way to the top again and get out. With that, I thought about all the trashcans and all the rats in the city. I let out a deep sigh of relief and thought to myself, “It’s time to find another way to show my appreciation in the world – and I’m not sure saving rats is it.” About that time, I saw a man sleeping on the street, I opened up my pack and grabbed out my sandwich. Careful not to wake him up I laid it on his sleeping bag and quietly walked on by.

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