The Kindness of Strangers

I have been meaning to tell this story from our Colorado vacation and kept forgetting. For some reason, it nagged at the back of mind for my entire business trip this week. What would Freud say about that?

My family is pretty serious about recycling. While we were staying at yurts, cabins, etc. in Colorado, we kept our recyclables separate from our garbage. Since none of the places we stayed had recycling bins, we had to find the little recycling centers in the small towns we went through. Our final stop was Colorado Springs which is a fairly large town. We could not find a recycling center. I think they probably have curbside recycling, so no center for drop-off like smaller Western towns do. Anyway, we still looked, starting with "soccer moms" walking the street and houses which looked like nicer residential areas first. My father thought we'd have better luck with someone like that.

After driving around and asking people for about 30-45 minutes, we ended up back on the outskirts of the main downtown area and saw a couple who looked to be in their late 50s walking their dog. From their expensive hiking-type clothes (like from Columbia sportwear or something from REI), we had a feeling they were into recycling. My brother, Kaaarrrl, careens to a halt by the curb close to them. My father opens his window and asks them where the nearest recycling center is. They don't know of one. But they start asking how much recycling we have. We show them. They offer to take it home to their house and put it in their recycling bin. So they ended up carrying our recycling, about 3 bags of plastic and cans, back to their house. How nice is that? Very freaking nice! So I guess I felt I had to tell them thank you, cosmically of course, since I am certain they don't read this blog.