Thank you Sierra Club, from Becky

A few days ago, the Jeep was parked in the lot of a big box grocery store. Its owner was inside getting a prescription filled and replenishing the family’s supply of water softener salt. The store is located in a Northeastern Metro area that is not among the most liberal locations in the Twin Cities. In fact, liberals are a minority in this neck of the woods. 

Among a multitude of bumper stickers on the back of the Jeep is one the Sierra Club sent. It reads "Make America Green Again." That sticker's been on the Jeep since about 2016. That slogan, and some similar sentiments on other bumper stickers, may have irritated more than one local pickup driver who seemed determined to demonstrate that real men drive pickups and drive fast. Being old enough to remember the consternation about “real men don’t eat quiche,” while also being a quiche eater, it was easy to be 1000% behind a response that went “real men eat whatever they want,” or words to that effect.

some notes bring joy

Photo by J. Harrington

All of this has been a long-winded prelude to sharing a story that made the day. The bumper sticker described above triggered the placement of a note under the Jeep’s driver side windshield wiper. That note turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It read:

Loved your 

“Make America 

Green Again” 

Bumper Sticker

🙂

Becky

I've never met Becky, although the Better Half did, since she returned to the Jeep before I finished my errands. It is all too rare an occasion when expressing a preference prompts a positive response from someone else. Is that because we have become too focused on our differences instead of what we have in common? Becky, and her note, have created a synergistic feedback. I will now be more open to telling others when I agree and will look more carefully for opportunities to pay positivity forward. That may not solve the world’s problems but it will undoubtedly make me happier. That’s a good enough place to start. In fact, I seem to recall a management technique that involved wandering around and catching people doing something right. It works with puppies, too. What more can we ask?

Thanks

By W. S. Merwin

Listen

with the night falling we are saying thank you

we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings

we are running out of the glass rooms

with our mouths full of food to look at the sky

and say thank you

we are standing by the water thanking it

standing by the windows looking out

in our directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging

after funerals we are saying thank you

after the news of the dead

whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you

in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators

remembering wars and the police at the door

and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you

in the banks we are saying thank you

in the faces of the officials and the rich

and of all who will never change

we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us

taking our feelings we are saying thank you

with the forests falling faster than the minutes

of our lives we are saying thank you

with the words going out like cells of a brain

with the cities growing over us

we are saying thank you faster and faster

with nobody listening we are saying thank you

thank you we are saying and waving

dark though it is

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