Challenges & Opportunities

"Well that  doesn't look safe", he says looking at the scattered Tiramisu boxes, one  of which indeed looks like it is about to fall off the shelf. The  others look somewhat stable, but messy, as if someone took the bottom  box from the pile and pulled it out, carelessly leaving the remaining  boxes scattered all over the place.

I watch my son pile up and sort all the boxes. It takes just a few seconds. I smile.

To  the next person who comes to this aisle everything will look perfectly  in order, there will be no trace of the Tiramisu massacre.

I  also do such things sometimes. Mostly little things, and not something  worth mentioning or talking about. In the same moment however, I have a  flashback of his father and something that happened many years ago.  Probably because it was a tad extreme.

Walking  through the park, we came across a huge mess. Mind you, it was nice and  well-kept, like most Viennese parks, featuring a lovely pavilion as one  of its highlights. This time, however, the entire ground in and around  the  pavilion  was covered in newspapers. It was as if someone decided to empty a paper  dumpster and then spread it all out to cover the largest possible area.  I couldn't imagine what could have possibly caused anyone to create  such a mess and leave it behind.

We both stood there, both of us angry, and while I still stared at the trash in disbelief, Ryan started picking it up.
Still angry over the careless people I kind of snarled at him, asking, what the heck he was doing?
Cleaning up, he said.

But it's huge, I protested.

He kind of shrugged, and continued collecting them and throwing them away.

I  think of my friend Monica. Mauritius is somewhat split regarding the trash issue. People used to throw banana peels into the bushes when  they are done eating them, and there is nothing really wrong with that.  Banana peels decompose. Unfortunately some treat plastic bags or bottles  the same way, and they don't disintegrate as well.
So, Monica.
Any  time she goes on a hike, she takes a rope with her. She ties up plastic  bottles she finds along the way, and drags them along during her hike,  to throw them away at the end of the journey.

I  think of planting Papaya trees with Jerome, and of him collecting  broken tiles and pottery pieces from remote destinations to create  mosaics. Of course, that also reduces the number of these sharp little  objects laying around in nature.

I like remembering these people.

Left to right: Ryan, me & Monica, me & Jerome

There  is no applause and society hasn't established any reward system for  such acts. The act itself is invisible, only the effect remains.

Actually, this reminds me of a story.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway.
Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock.

Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.
Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables.
Upon  approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to  move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and  straining, he finally succeeded.

After the peasant picked up his  load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the  boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from  the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the  boulder from the roadway.  

For us, in life, the reward is another. It is meaningless whether others know the great or the terrible things we have done. We always know it.
Doing the right is, therefore, a matter of self-love and self-respect.
You  do the wrong thing (something that you yourself know is wrong), and  even if nobody ever finds out, you will eventually end up punishing  yourself for it.

Besides, it does something to us when we improve  our  circumstances, when we change our reality by taking charge rather than  sitting back and complaining about it. This can be done gently, fluidly,  while we  continue to move along. It doesn't need to be a life mission or anything  grandiose like that.  Basically, it is merely one of the answers to the  question of who we are, or  who we want to be in life.   

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.
The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
Winston Churchill

Sabina Nore
@anibas