David J.

Pollay

Read David's bio and previous columns

April 21, 2008

Spread Love, Not Garbage

Another column in The Law of the Garbage Truck series

I recently took my little girls, five-year-old Eliana and four-year-old Ariela, into Blockbuster Video to rent the movie Ratatouille. We found the movie on the shelf and took it to the counter to pay. And then we waited. And we waited.

My girls and I waited as the sales clerk handled a customer service issue on the telephone. The sales clerk signaled with her eyes that she knew that we were there. Her message was that she would help us as soon as possible. And so we waited. 

I could tell that the customer on the telephone was being difficult and would not let the sales clerk off the phone. This was putting even more pressure on her because she was the only one working in the store and customers were lining up behind us. 

So I turned away from the counter and started talking to my girls about the popcorn we would make when we got home.  Just then the sales clerk hung up the telephone and invited me to step forward. 

“I apologize for the wait,” she said.

I said, “It sounds like you had a tough customer on the line.”

She said, “Yeah, but that’s OK. It’s all right.”

I knew she was frustrated, but she was doing her best not to let it show. I handed her my money for the rental. She put the movie in a bag and handed it to me. I said thanks, and my girls and I walked to the exit.

And before we reached the door, my little girls started to debate who would get to carry the bag. I stopped. I knew the drill. I had to break the impasse. When I was just about to tell them how we would decide who would have the honor of carrying the bag this time, the sales clerk came out from behind the counter, and walked over to us. She was carrying another bag in her hand with a catalogue tucked inside. The sales clerk leaned down, smiled at my girls, and said, “I have another bag for you girls. One of you can carry the new bag and one of you can carry the bag with the movie. You both get to carry a bag. How’s that?” 

My girls looked at each other, smiled, and said, “Ohhh. Thank you.” The sales clerk gave me a big smile, and said, “I have two girls. I know about these things.” She proudly walked back to her next customer. And I walked my girls to the car feeling grateful.

Our sales clerk had a choice to make. She could either have fed the Cycle of Garbage in the world or she could have fed the Cycle of Love. Our sales clerk chose to stop the garbage and feed the love. She followed The Law of the Garbage Truck. She let a difficult experience with a customer pass her by, and did not hold onto it. She focused on what she could control. With that decision, our sales clerk made the world a more beautiful place. 

Good people like my sales clerk are all around us. Let’s find them together. Let’s acknowledge them and recognize them. The next time you witness people stopping the Cycle of Garbage and feeding the Cycle of Love, let them know how much you appreciate them. And then send me an e-mail and tell me their stories. I will write about them in a future column or in my blog. 

Spread love, not garbage. You’ll be happier, and so will the world around you.

© 2008 David J. Pollay. Distributed by North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.

This is Column # DJP056. Request permission to publish here.