It happens at the same time every Tuesday when I’m working my outpatient clinic. About 1:30 in the afternoon, give or take.
The big blue and white truck, surprisingly clean and tidy given its purpose, rumbles past my window, up the neighboring bank’s driveway and straight on up the hill, dead ending at the battered blue trash receptacle waiting silently with its load of old lunch bags, discarded newspapers and shredded accounting info. The truck, out of my line of sight now but noisily going about its business, guides its metal forks into the grooves on each sided of the receptacle, spearing it like a fish, then hoists it high into the air as if to say “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” There is a loud cacophonous metal on plastic on wood on metal shrieking as the day’s detritus slides down the ground-ward side of the bin, into the belly of the beast as Jonah to the whale. The bin is set back down almost reverentially, lighter now and ready to receive more garbage. The big blue and white truck backs away slowly, then continues backing down the driveway, it’s beep beep beep telling me that all is well for one more day. Out with the bad.
The man driving that big truck has one of the most important jobs in the world.
He shows up every day and makes the world a better place. He brings a sense of order. He clears away the things that rot, the things that smell, the things that putrify and spoil and remind us of our mortality. He makes room for the next day’s refuse, the things that are cast off for lack of need or interest. He shuns none of them. He deals with whatever is in the bin, every day, the same time, in the same way. Without him, the world around us would decline and disintegrate and spin out of control. It is his dedication to his job that makes us feel secure. We know what time he will come, what he will do, and how his job helps to make the world an orderly place.
What are you hanging onto today that needs to be hoisted high in the air, dumped into the big blue truck and hauled away? What needs to be cleaned from your mind, body and soul to make your world right again?
“What needs to be cleaned from your mind, body and soul to make your world right again?”
THIS. I needed this. I need to unload a great deal right now. I struggle sometimes because I can never tell if allowing people to be around me during my more difficult moments is worth it. I don’t know if I should wait until I’m feeling better. At the same time – part of what makes RIGHT NOW so hard isn’t just not feeling well – it is the week itself. Both cultural expectations (singleness, professionally, etc etc) and disappointment that I DON’T feel well.
If there was a way to clean it all out I wonder what it would be like to just sit with myself and be happy or at least peaceful in the moment? Thank you – I NEEDED this today.
M
If only it were that simple. Gosh how I wish it was that simple!