a reader's follow-up
Subject: Ashtrays
Reader writes:
>[...]
>This will probably surprise and confound the "giver",
>but strangely s/he will soon feel very good inside to
>helping someone out. In other words, your thing is to
>respond to *all* "finds" as a Receiver of Gifts, not
>as a taker of other peoples' trash. Higher Consciousness,
>dear friend, rather than anal reaction.
Yea!!
When I have to put out an unfinished cigarette because the bus arrives, I put it out carefully so as to leave as much smokable as possible, always avoiding puddles and such, yes it's for whoever comes later and cares for a smoke, my relationship with Tobacco is such that I would never treat it as trash. If you were sitting on a nearby bench, I wouldn't even have to put it out first would I. So enjoy. Take a puff. Send the smoke up and think of me.
In fact, you might improve the place a bit by adding a theatrical "tsk-tsk" as you notice the waste of an entire half a cigarette just lying there... Used to be times and places when the plant was treated with much more reverence.
Strange thought, that because you don't have "your own" you have no business helping me finish mine.
And it's not just tobacco. Anything which is a gift in life should not, must not, be treated as trash, as something too horrid to be touched. Surplus food treated as something dirty? Hmph!!! Why does its surplus-ness make it untouchable? Ever notice how surplus love is considered shameful too?
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