Train Garbage

As I was leaving the train, the gentleman next to me had left his newspaper on the seat.  Being a kind and helpful person, I said "excuse me you left your newspaper" to which he replied "oh I'm done with it."  If we did not live in a crazy world where people kill other people for no good reason I would have then said what I was thinking "oh, then you left your garbage."

"Why is everyone leaving without us?"

And he's not the only one who doesn't think the cleaning up of one's own garbage is a passenger's responsibility. I had the misfortune of getting on a train the other day that had just pulled in and let out passengers (some come in empty).  There was crap everywhere.   A guy next to me when I sat down said with a straight face "you'd think the LIRR could do a better job with what we pay - and they just keep increasing it." Now I have no overwhelming love for the LIRR (I've written about them before) but the train just pulled in - this wasn't them (and you know what - even if they have hours to clean a train, they should be doing maintenance and general cleaning not picking up shit people leave behind).  So my snarky self couldn't help myself - I responded "well it would also help if people weren't such slobs and picked up after themselves."  He looked a bit taken aback that I had questioned his firmly held world view and returned to his phone, ostensibly to text a sympathetic friend as opposed to some strange bitch, that LIRR workers suck at cleaning, minus the context that LIRR passengers do too.  Clearly he did not agree with me that adults should have to take their garbage off the train themselves.  

I can’t comprehend what is going through your mind when you spend an hour on a passenger train, drinking a coffee, eating a doughnut and reading a paper and then when the train pulls into the station you get up and just leave your empty coffee cup (dregs inside which will likely spill onto the seat at some point), crumpled, crumb filled bag and crinkled newspaper.  If it is an afternoon train, substitute an empty Budweiser can for the coffee and the rest is the same.  Meanwhile, this is after the conductor has announced at least once, and usually more, to please help keep our trains clean and use the trash bins on the station platforms.  There are trash bins everywhere – and they do have garbage in them so clearly they are used by people who understand you clean up after yourself.   Yet still there remain the few, the privileged, who think someone else should clean up after them.  Hey, I understand.  The mini-mes, aged 10 and 6, think me and Big Guy should clean up after them.  But we are teaching them otherwise so that they don't grow up into the kind of crummy adults who leave their garbage behind in public places, assuming someone else will take care of it.

And let me add for the record, that this may be a train related rant but it happens in lots of other places.  Food courts in malls – people leave their trays filled with garbage on the table.  Movie theaters – people leave their empty cups and popcorn buckets.  Or even better, half filled so the other people in the row kick them over, leaving a particularly lovely mess for the well-paid theater workers to clean up before the next showing.  Anyone who has stepped in a sticky mess on the theater floor knows how well that turns out. Sporting events – empty beer cups and cardboard food holders scattered all about.  Just like the LIRR, in each of these places there are *huge* trash cans available for garbage.  Yet people persist in acting like they’re in a restaurant and the busboy will be along any moment to clear the table.

Have a little courtesy for your fellow humans.  Clean up after yourself.  And if you can’t or won’t, whatever your reason, then be generous enough to leave a nice tip along with your trash for the staff that have to clean up after you, the responsible adult.

As I was leaving the train, the gentleman next to me had left his newspaper on the seat.  Being a kind and helpful person, I said "excuse me you left your newspaper" to which he replied "oh I'm done with it."  If we did not live in a crazy world where people kill other people for no good reason I would have then said what I was thinking "oh, then you left your garbage."  

"Why is everyone leaving without us?"

Can You Change the World If You Don't Make Your Bed?

So I recently saw this article on facebook and was immediately interested.  I'm a sucker for motivational tips on how to live a better life; especially those that include things I already do so I can feel awesome about myself and not really have to do anything extra.  And these were from a Navy Seal!  I will feel even more awesome when I see things I am already doing on his list!

My excitement grew as I began reading and the first lesson started with "if you want to change the world."  I really do want to change the world.  This would be a particularly enjoyable motivational list.  I would do good, while improving myself (while still hoping it would mostly be things I’m already doing – I’m pretty busy and not looking to add much to the to-do list).

And then I finished reading number one and my hopes were crushed.  The Navy Seal’s life principle number one?  Make your bed every morning.  Epic fail.  I never make my bed, unless people are coming over.  Wait, let me rephrase that.  Unless people are coming over who will be coming upstairs and will see my bed.  That’s right – I only do it if someone will see it.

And he really put a lot of stock into this bed-making thing.  Apparently, making my bed is step one in accomplishing anything else that day.  It is the springboard from which accomplishing all of my other tasks will, well, spring.  My pride in my well made bed will spur me on to accomplish other things all day long.  If I can’t get this little thing right, I’ll never get the big things right.

And I don’t want to make my bed.  On my list of things I need to do in the morning before I leave the house, making my bed wouldn’t even appear.  It’s not like it’s #23 and sometimes I get to it if it’s a good morning.  It’s not even a remote thought.  I might accidentally make it if I throw my comforter around while I’m looking for a lost sock or kid’s toy or something and it ends up kind of covering the bed.  But that’s as close as it is going to get to being made.

But then I decided to turn this whole thing upside down and find a way to make it work better for me (my snarky self is very adept at doing that).  I realized I should not get stuck on the first principle and that although I choose not to make my bed as a part of my being very efficient in the morning (see, things are looking up already, I’m efficient not lazy), it’s not a particularly difficult thing to do and I should move on to the other principles so I could find something with which I could change the world (and again, hopefully something I was already doing).

This was a good plan.  Numbers two and three gave me hope. I’m paraphrasing here but they seem to be let other people help you and short people are just as good as tall people.  I like to tell people what to do and I’m pretty short so those really resonated with me. 

I now had two out of the first three (so what if this was based upon some very loose interpretations) and decided I should quit while I was ahead.  

I’m very aware the Navy Seal would not consider quitting while one is ahead a life principle that will result in changing the world, but if you will recall about two paragraphs ago I changed this to playing by my rules, so it counts.