Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Dump: by Guest Blogger Pat

I live in a very tiny village in the midst of farming community. It is also the home to a small college so the population runs the gambit from “landed gentry” to near homeless, with every kind of socioeconomic layer in between.

One of the great equalizers is the town dump which is open every Saturday. (Being a small town, we have no public trash pick-up). A premiere attraction of the dump is that ones sees the entire panoply of our community – professors to janitors – each week and it offers an ideal opportunity to catch up on the local gossip. Just today during my seven minutes at the dump I saw nine friends.

From rusted-out trucks to shiny Volvos
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As a widow in my 60’s, I could easily justify hiring someone to pick up my trash, but I find a great satisfaction is sorting, packing and hauling it myself. We are very recycle-oriented here in New York State, so we have separate bins for paper, cardboard, cans and bottles, metal and plain old trash. My biggest challenge is to heft the trash bag (always the largest) into the trash smasher, as the opening is at eye level.


The guy who salvages the returnable beer cans--I keep him in pocket money
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Driving home from the dump amidst the gorgeous fall farm scene overlooking beautiful Cayuga Lake, I pondered why these trips gave me such satisfaction beyond the simple physical accomplishment noted above.

Cayuga Lake

I realized that the shedding of ones empty beer cans, read papers, and empty food packages at the end of each week signals a new beginning—all my containers at home are now empty waiting to be filled anew.
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If only we had a place to dump our hurt feelings, disagreements, aches and pains, and stresses at the end of each week how peaceful our lives would be.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ohhhh, I wonder if there would be a dump large enough to accommodate all of the hurt feelings and stepped on emotions of this world? I think just a few hugs amongst each other might help to keep that dump from being needed.... don't ya wish?

Di
The Blue Ridge Gal

Me, You, or Ellie said...

How lovely, Pat! Thanks for joining in the fun over here. So nice to have you aboard.

What a sweet little slice of bucolic heaven your, um, dump is. Love it.

Ellie

Rita said...

>If only we had a place to dump our hurt feelings, disagreements, aches and pains, and stresses at the end of each week how peaceful our lives would be.<

Oh, that fit so well with what I wrote yesterday!

I enjoyed taking a virtual trip to the dump with you. Thanks for that.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Ah, even stories of the dump make me long for Aurora. Sigh.

Thanks for the great post, mom!!

Love you,
Beth

beth said...

That place...it's called a happy marriage!

Bandobras said...

BRG worried about the space needed for the hurts etc. Actually once you throw them away they are inevitably tiny and often just blow away all by themselves. Its only when you keep them and feed them that they grow big enough to hurt you.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Lovely post Pat, thanks so much for guest blogging! A blog is a great place to dump those disposable emotions and reactions... I'd be a loyal reader of yours!!

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving

Jacquie

martyjoco said...

This makes sense: your observation that clearing out the waste & clutter brings free space for new beginnings... very reminiscent of a certain blogger's joy in a neatly sorted bathroom drawer...

Thanks for the wise thoughts and lovely photo of dear Lake Cayuga.

nightowl said...

Unbelievable that someone on this tiny little blog is from my tiny little hometown! (I'd ask if you knew Tudi, but of course you do!)

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Tudi, of course! Of course we do.

Beth