My brother and I found out from our dad that the reason the old guy in the neighborhood used a stick to stab aluminum cans and asked us if we had anymore was because aluminum had a monetary value. Aluminum was big (small) business. I quickly realized that this was, for a 7 year old, the modern day equivalent of the poor-man's Midas touch. Every can I could find would be turned into cash money. With my brother at my side, the two of us scavenged the neighborhood (at least the parts within our parents line of vision), looking far and wide for cans. With each can, we realized we were one step closer to Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Contra, or Double Dribble.
In 1985, 2 million collectors earned over 200 million dollars saving cans. While this sounds like the greatest get-rich-quick scheme since door-to-door vacuum sales, it is important to do simple math. Cans were worth around $0.27 a per pound at the time. It takes roughly forty cans to get a pound of aluminum. In order to fully pay for a Nintendo game ($50), we had to collect over 200 pounds of cans! Even with my current addiction to soft drinks, that takes a really long time. As a 2nd grader, I realized with the quickness a simple truth that much of America still embraces: Recycling is a hassle.
Time passed. I grew up, graduated, got a job, recycling... is still not fun. It is more convenient. It is publicized better. It has a catchy, colorful nickname. Yet it still calls for a person to make a decision that involves an extra effort.
The recycler now come by your house and pick up your goods. You no longer have to sort them. Just throw it all in one bag and they will sort it all later. The only problem is that they do not run regularly. It takes someone competent in either quantum physics, logarithms, or philosophy to decode the pick up times for your neighborhood. The recycle truck on our street used to run the first Tuesday after the full moon (if it wasn't raining), but now runs twice a month. I still do not know when those two times will be.
Last Tuesday, I had my neighbor and best friend Kevin jump off my old truck and Hope and I hauled the remaining cardboard in our garage to the recycle center. (I had gotten lucky and placed most of the recyclables on the street. However, I did not want to push my luck for fear of having to carry it all back inside after the defeat of realizing that it was not the right day...again.) As we were driving, a box flew out of the back of the truck. I wanted to leave it. I felt like that it would decompose on its own since we were going the extra mile for the sake of the planet. Hope disagreed.
I parked about 15 feet down the road on the one flat spot I could find to park. I left the truck running because the truck won't start back up when you do weird things like put it in park. I ran quickly because the truck was on fumes. I went running uphill and grabbed the old diaper box box and took off back for the truck. As I sprinted to the truck, a little lady that we will call Edna stepped out from behind one of the bushes. She asked if I could trim the tops of her hedges.
The truck was still running. Hope was waiting. Edna was handing me the clippers (without an answer). I started to make an excuse. "I don't have time" seemed overused. "My wife is waiting" did not seem correlate with Hope's personality or the old ichthus on the back of my truck. ("Feaux hawks are in on bushes" was probably my best bet in retrospect.)
I took the clippers and trimmed the hedges. Edna told me her story. She told me that her husband had passed away from cancer and that she was taking care of her son now because he, too, has cancer. She told me that the Lord was getting her through this difficult part in her life.
In three minutes, I learned about a lady whose house I pass on the way to Target, to Chili's, to get gas, who I would never have even thought about stopping to help.
I got in the truck and Hope and I drove to the Recycle Center. She was laughing hysterically. We continued to laugh at my inability to properly trim bushes. What seemed like a hassle turned into a moment that made an impact on me and made me realize somet things for which I am grateful:
I am grateful for Kevin's forward thinking in the purchase of his jumper cables.
I am grateful for Hope being in the truck with me to watch this debacle.
I am grateful that I don't have to collect cans anymore for video games.
I am grateful that the recycle driver is so unpredictable.
I am grateful for the box that flew out of the back of my truck.
I am grateful for Edna being 5'3.
I am grateful that her bushes are 6'1.
