Gary Cecil III
The Signal
It’s not that hard to do a helpful thing once in a while. I don’t mean helping a friend move into a new home, though that’s good too. I mean small, day-to-day things that can make a difference to total strangers and will take almost no time. Here are a few examples of things that take little effort but most people can’t bother themselves with doing.
Let’s start with putting your shopping cart back in the cart corral. You have to move the cart a few steps away from your car in order to avoid hitting it anyway. How much more inconvenient could it be to move a few more steps to return your cart? The farthest you might have to walk is five car lengths. And the corrals are usually staggered from lane to lane, so you could probably just walk across the lane to one closer. This couldn’t take more than an extra 10 seconds.
The reason most of us don’t bother is because the problem this causes is somebody else’s. If you push your cart out of the way of your car, you end up blocking someone else. Now this poor soul must move your cart and their own out of the way of their car before they can move. Another problem is that many people will just leave their cart in an empty space, which then blocks anyone from parking in that spot. You might think it would be fine to just put your cart in the middle of the lanes, between two cars. But doing that can turn a simple gust of wind into a gust of wind carrying a cart that is flying toward a car, about to dent or scratch it, given enough momentum. I have seen this happen.
And turn signals. If you’re driving down the main road and I’m getting ready to turn onto the same road, I’m supposed to wait for you to pass. But if you’re turning off of the road before then, I shouldn’t have to wait. Luckily, they’ve installed this ingenuous signal that informs other drivers when you are getting ready to turn. Its only drawback is that you have to actually use it. It’s easy. All you have to do is just move your finger up or down one inch. On the flip side, if you notice someone’s signal and you’re in their way, do something. Slow down, speed up. Anything.
Another thing: picking up some garbage. You’re walking down a sidewalk, heading toward a trash can when you see a cheeseburger box on the pavement two feet from the trashcan. I know I’ve done this. I’ve looked at the box and thought: “How could someone possibly just drop their garbage this close to a trashcan and not take those few extra steps.” And then I just walked right past leaving the trash on the ground. I wasn’t the one who littered, so it wasn’t my problem, right? Well, it was my problem. I have to live here.
Some things in life take so little effort to do, but we take for granted that it is someone else’s responsibility. Keep an eye out for things you could be doing but usually decide not to because you think there is no point and think about whether or not this could be helpful to other people. Now, I’m certainly guilty of a few of these, but I’m committed to doing better. Call me crazy, but I think we’d all be a lot happier if other people took these little things into account.
