Out to eat the other day, I was waiting for my party to leave the restaurant. While I waited, a group of young adults exited. One woman had a crumpled wrapper in her hand. She passed by a trashcan and threw the wrapper towards the trash can opening. The wind caught the paper and it landed 8 inches away from the can. She paused for a second, and then kept on going, not missing a syllable of her conversation and leaving the litter where it lay. I have seen countless trash receptacles with trash bits around nearby.
I now believe those pieces of paper represent people who were willing to do the right thing as long as it didn’t cost them too much. I’ve seen people intentionally litter the ground with their waste. The ones that just missed the receptacle are attempting to do their part. If the trashcan is missed, “it’s the thought that counts” works well to soothe our troubled hearts. “I tried. It just didn’t work out.”
Now when I pass littered trashcans, I see good intentions. A lot of them! It has been said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If that is true, I guess one way we might recognize that road is by all the trash scattered around.
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