We All Have Trash

The first few weeks that we lived in our little neighborhood, our next-door-neighbor had a trashcan almost identical to ours. I think we may have accidentally brought back his trashcan to our porch on one trash pickup day. Maybe that's why he quit using his trashcan. Or maybe he just got tired of carrying the whole trashcan down every Tuesday. I'm not sure. Either way, he started just putting these white drawstring bags on his side of the sidewalk to be picked up on Tuesdays, but every Tuesday night I'd notice the trash pickup men had left those bags right where they lay. Maybe they didn't like his rebellion against the can. Or, maybe they just didn't see his little bags behind the parked cars. So, last Tuesday I came home at lunch to this scene. Our trashcan, and beautiful new Raleigh recycling bin (an aside: Casey is continually amazed by the things that can be recycled---"you can recycle glass?? you can recycle newspaper??", and I am continually picking things out of the trash that can actually be recycled), now accompanied by our neighbor's can-less trash bags. I thought it was funny, but more, I thought it was a good picture of community. "Hey neighbor, you just put your trash out next to mine, and we'll do this thing together." My prayer is that our little cirlce of huts would soon be a community, in the true sense of the word.