A Glass Half Full
Still holds the promise of another sip
By Ron Ciancutti
Carolyn tied off the blue recycling bag after rinsing out the bottles and placed it in the bin the city had provided. Its “Environmental Conscience Day” had been advertised in the local papers for months and was meant to encourage conscientious consumer attitudes going forward. On “garbage night,” Carolyn wheeled out the recycling bin and put it next to the standard garbage bin for morning pickup. She happened to be awake the next morning when the truck rolled around; much to her dismay, she saw the automatic pick-up arm empty both the blue and black bins into the same truck. There must be some mistake, she thought, and she called the Refuse Department. A man explained that soon the department would be getting the “means to sort and separate,” but for now the agency was merely getting the public “into the habit” of separating trash. Time passed and Carolyn lost interest, but she continued to separate the trash; if it ever did get sorted and properly recycled, she really wouldn’t know. “No big deal,” she concluded. From that point, she never heard about environmental efforts without rolling her eyes and saying, “Yeah. Sure.”
© Can Stock Photo / tsikhan
Burger Blunder
The succulent burger seen on the television screen was advertised as being “only available for a short time.” It had bacon, golden cheese, leafy green lettuce, and a ripe, red tomato wedged in atop a big white onion. The sandwich looked about 6 inches high. The deal was that, if you bought one, the second was half-price. Come lunchtime the next day, Ted stood in line to buy two of those bad boys. He ordered enthusiastically and the cashier, half-asleep, rang it up. When presented the bill, Ted said, “Hey, the second one is half-price.” “We don’t have that,” she said. The manager drifted over and said, “That’s only in certain stores.” Ted shook his head and waited for his order. He hurried off to a table and unwrapped the burger. The lettuce was brown, and the pickle had slid off onto the foil. Melted cheese sealed the paper so completely that pieces were stuck to the sandwich. Ted returned to the counter and said, “This is NOT the burger you advertised!” The manager rolled his eyes, took the burger back, and ordered another. Ten minutes later, the “special order” was worse than the first. Ted threw it all in the trash and never returned. He told everyone he knew about his experience. Word spread and did affect business for a while, but eventually people returned and paid full price for bad food.
Too Short
Bob waited until the week before his buddy’s wedding to get a haircut. When he entered the shop, the barbers were engaged in a disagreement. As Bob described the haircut he wanted, a barber nodded, paying only scant attention. Fifteen minutes later, Bob turned around, looked in the mirror, and found a cut much shorter than he had requested. “This is not what I asked for,” he politely said. “What,” said the barber, “you look good.” Bob was getting angry. “It looks OK if that’s what I wanted, but you cut too much hair and I have a big event next week!” The barber waved him off, “It’ll grow.”
As Bob stormed out of the shop, he threw a twenty-dollar bill on the floor. The barber shouted a filthy name at him. Bob was forced to make the best of what hair he had left.
Things Are Against Us
These experiences may not seem earth-shattering, but they wear away at the core of our belief systems and the things that are important to us. They lead us to believe everything has a hook or an angle, and the things we are promised or told can be misleading. This breeds a lack of trust.
A friend of mine used to say, “Things are against us.” He meant it was not uncommon for certain things to go wrong—maybe even most of the time.
When you’re fumbling for your keys, you invariably drop the groceries.
When reaching across a table to prevent your toddler from spilling his milk, you knock over your juice.
When you’ve been thinking all day about that frozen pepperoni pizza you saved to enjoy during the televised Golden Gloves championship, you discover it’s a double-broccoli veggie special instead. Grrrrrr.
When tightening the three bolts on the glass globe for a ceiling fan, you neglect to tighten one completely, at which point the globe will immediately falls to the floor and shatters.
When you select a line at the grocery store, the other line always moves faster.
When you’re in that same line, you get behind a guy who wants to write a check or pay with rolled pennies.
When you are working on your lawn, covered in sweat and wearing the most ill-fitting clothes in the closet, you inevitably bump into an old acquaintance (who says you look great).
Do you see? Maybe my friend is right! It seems things are against us!
Make The Best Of It
It would be easy to total all these examples and give up hope for a life without conflict, but let me offer a silver lining. All these problems may seem awful in the moment, but really are not that frequent. In the overall scheme of things, they are minor inconveniences.
So:
Maybe the grocery bag split in the driveway and spilled your bundle the other day, but in the last 100 times you hauled in bags, the other 99 were incident-free.
Maybe the other line moves faster, but how many times have you turned to the person next to you and found a new friend or had a nice conversation?
Maybe you discover that the broccoli pizza is a new and healthier alternative to pepperoni.
Maybe your toddler, who is watching you spill your juice, will realize that even Mommy and Daddy make mistakes, and he’ll get a good laugh, too.
Maybe bumping into that former acquaintance will give you a greater appreciation for the person who’s waiting for you at home.
As always, my friends, perspective remains the key. And I think you’ll agree the good outweighs the bad.
Ron Ciancutti worked in the parks and recreation industry since he was 16 years old, covering everything from maintenance, operations, engineering, surveying, park management, design, planning, recreation, and finance. He is now retired. He holds a B.S. in Business from Bowling Green State University and an M.B.A. from Baldwin Wallace University. He is not on Facebook, but he can be reached at ron@northstarpubs.com.