Small Good Things

"Take the time, think it through
Walk in wise but leave a fool
And it can betray
Sometimes a beggar has more to say"
 - "Sometimes A Beggar" by Caedmon's Call



I walk home from a friend's house and pass by a family picking through the trash. It is 9:00 pm and the trash trucks will start rumbling through around 10:30, as they do every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On those days, people start piling their trash on the sidewalks in front of their homes as soon as it gets dark. No one has outdoor trashcans: they simply place the bags and boxes and any other items on the curb.

There are always people who go through the trash, week after week, looking for anything they can salvage. Some people push flat rolling carts around which they stack with broken-down cardboard boxes. Some haul large sacks over their shoulders; I don't know what all they look for. Anything not too broken, I would think. Anything which might be re-imagined.

It's the sound of children laughing which makes me turn and look. A couple of children are helping some shadowed parental figure haul a huge, flattened box - ladened with other items - down the street. A third child pushes a stroller along beside them, pulling it to a hard stop when they come to a new pile of trash. It's possible the family is not homeless, but poor enough that this is what they do: they or their parents go out and go through the trash as a source of income. The children giggle again, and I think that maybe, this is exciting for them. They are out at night when the streets are quiet, when it's like a different place. They are assigned tasks; push the stroller, look for cardboard, bring home all you can of worth. Children can be delighted with the simplest things, like riding an elevator or having a dog push his nose into their palms. I am torn between feeling sorry for them and wanting to taste their joy over being out at night and part of their parent's world. What I do know is that I hope for them ... all good things. I hope for a future which rises them above poverty, with each day holding more than the struggle to merely exist. I hope for education and purpose and so much more. Yet for tonight, I hope they see themselves as being on a treasure hunt, an adventure. I hope they continue to laugh and that they find many useful things. I hope they take delight in every small good thing they can, collecting them in their hearts like fireflies in jars.