Thursday, August 02, 2007

Park your cart!

My truck was hit by a shopping cart in the grocery store parking lot the other day. Some stranger was kind enough to point it out, otherwise, the latest ding would have been a mystery. Supermarkets are like mythical holy places here in my Arizona neighborhood. Each one more magnificent than the next, vying for our grocery dollars. But still, going to the supermarket is deeply time consuming and repetitive. Therefore, I have decided to rethink the whole boring job and turn this chore into a place of zen. I do it by returning my own shopping cart to it's rightful place when I am done with it. It sounds minor, but it has become a ritual of righteousness. Now that I have begun my career of cart returning I find myself mentally tsk-tsking when I see carts others have left behind.
My cart is my responsibility and I like to do what's right. It makes me feel as if I am not just a consumer, but a useful, productive volunteer.
If everyone just returned his or her metaphorical cart, the world would be a better place, I think. It becomes a matter of one such small gesture, thought or kind act that saves you from creating a "ding" in another. How many small opportunities in life present themselves without ever being noticed?

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