Yeah, I saw you.  I saw you as you sat with your friends on the Starbucks patio enjoying your morning coffee.  I saw you as you watched the lovely breeze toss your napkin off of your table on onto the ground.  I watched your half-hearted attempt to rise from your chair and make a grab for the napkin…and then your decision to just let it go and sit back down.  Had the napkin been blowing away in a blustery wind, that would have been understandable.  But instead, the napkin lay just feet from you and didn’t move again.  But, it was already gone from your mind as you chatted and laughed with your buddies.  I thank you for leaving one more piece of trash lying aroudnd to pollute our beautiful planet.  Your goofy conversation was far more important than the planet.  Right?

I’m disappointed.  Not just in you, but in everything you represent.  The idea that so many people are too lazy to get off of our fat American butts, squat down and pick up their trash is so very disturbing to me.  Our society has become so self-absorbed that they can’t be bothered to exert themselves for a mere couple of seconds.  It saddens me so.

While I was still feeling the sting from witnessing your napkin drop, I saw another incident that upset me just as much.  A woman was walking through the mall with her lidless soda and a bit of her drink sloshed out onto the mall floor.  She turned, looked at the spill, hesitated as if to decide what should be done….and then just continued walking.  Her indifference nauseated me.  What if a child slipped and fell and busted a head, tooth or nose?  Or somebody’s grandmother slipped, broke a hip and was doomed to life in a nursing home?  But it’s okay….because that soda-spiller’s mission in the mall was far more important than someone else’s well-being.

Perhaps you know her?  Maybe you guys had a Meeting of Indifferent Minds that morning and planned your disregard for the world around you?

I would like to introduce you to another man who crossed my path days later.  His name is ‘That homeless guy that’s always on the corner’.  I’m sure you’ve seen him.  Maybe you should introduce yourself, for I think he might have something to teach you.

As I sat at the redlight, he crossed the street on the far side from me.  I watched him and wondered about his life…and then I saw him go around a car, the long way to his destination.  What was he doing?  He was moving a car bumper out of the road so noone would damage their car hitting it or have a wreck while dodging it.  I’m pretty sure he didn’t do this for his own benefit, as he doesn’t drive.  He did it for others without hesitating for a moment to decide if it would put him out a few seconds of his life.

The urge I had to get out of my car and thank him strongly rivaled the urge I had that morning at Starbucks to get out of my car and go shove your discarded napkin down your throat.

Your fellow human being,

Abbie