Big Plastic Bag

Today I received in the mail an envelope with a big plastic bag in it. Strange. I read the accompanying letter which explained that the bag is to be filled with my junk and left on the curb to be collected by an organization that is helping veterans. Now, to be sure this is not the first time I have ever seen this type of bag, but in the past they have been left on my front door with a note telling me to put my junk in the bag and leave it on the curb to be collected by some other organization to benefit some other group of needy people.


Normally I throw the bag (and the note) away and I don’t give it a second thought. It’s not that I don’t have things that I could fill the bag with, it’s just that I never felt like taking the time to do it. Here’s the silly part: Later on, I would have thoughts about collecting all the junk in my house to donate to good will. So the irony is that an organization goes to all the trouble of printing the bags (they normally have the collection dates on them. A very neat thing to put on a bag if you are an organization that is begging for other peoples donations) and then having someone go up and down the street placing the bags there and telling people that they will come back to get the bags later. Essentially removing many objections that people have in donating things such as not having the time to take the stuff to the donation center…not knowing where to take the things in the first place.

The only thing people would have to do is put the things they don’t want in their houses anymore into the bag and then put the bag on the curb on the appointed day. And yet, I would still throw the bags away. I guess I was too busy avoiding my life to be bothered to take even this small step to help my fellow man. What a callous ass I am.


Well, I don’t know what it was about THIS bag that made a difference, but I went into my closet and did the deed of sorting through pants that don’t fit, shirts I never wear and shoes I don’t want and stuffed 3 bags full. Then I rearranged the clothes in the closet and got some other things out of there that really makes it a lot better to go in there (I have a big walk-in closet…Thanks Judy!) I really feel much better about myself for having done this too. Funny…it really doesn’t take much to make me happy.