It’s The Little Things
This morning, when I pulled out of my driveway on my way to a meeting on the east side of Cleveland, I noticed a significant change in the way my street looked. Today is trash day in my neighborhood, and usually that means bits of trash flying all over the neighborhood and empty trash cans strewn where they land–sidewalk, street, or treelawn. Today, the empty trash cans were neatly stacked upside down on the tree lawns. How pleasant to see our street look so neat and clean on trash day! Not two weeks earlier, Tim was requesting help from the blogosphere trying to get our trash picked up. And now, I am marveling at the change in the way things are on trash day.
To some of you, this event might not seem like much, but those of us who live in the city know that the “little” things mean a lot. Today I have hope that our city is on the verge of something new and exciting. Today, I “expect great things.”
January 8th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Gloria,
I’ve had the exact feeling before too. There’s some days when I step outside, see the sun gleaming through the trees, Old Brooklyn looks so bright and has even more potential. However, there’s the other days, where you wonder if the community will continue to survive or fall into atrophy.
Glad you had that positive moment.
Will.
January 9th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Gloria,
During the dog days of this past summer that were so, so hot, each garbage day I left a small cooler next to my trash containing three bottles of ice-cold Gatorade. Being a former garbage collector myself, it was a small token of my appreciation of the hot, hard work done by our garbage collectors. After the second week, my empty trash cans were brought up to the side of my house. It was a nice acknowledgement of my small gesture. I never spoke to the garbage collectors about this, but within this small unspoken interaction I felt a tremendous sense of community. There must be a million ways to create small senses of community that easily. I’m going to think of more and post them from time to time on my blog. Thanks for helping me remember my positive moment.