I was walking through Yorkville today window-shopping with no intentions to buy and admiring the beautiful clothes and displays and people. And then, as I walked by a good-looking couple getting out of a car they did something that disturbed me - they deliberately threw a coffee cup onto the sidewalk.
Now, I don't want to pretend I've never littered, because that would be hypocritical.
But to throw a cup onto a sidewalk, with people watching says that you just don't care about the consequences, and quite possibly this behaviour is so common to you that you don't even think about what you're doing.
So what I did next surprised even me a little. I stepped over to the cup, leant to pick it up, and said to them "Here, let me pick that up for you. There's a garbage can just over there." And smiled at them (in a friendly way, not in a "I'm totally judging you way"). The man was absolutely appalled (hopefully at their own behaviour) and said "No, no, I'll get it." And that's how I left them.
Moral of this story: Don't litter. And, you never know what I'll say/do when you're walking down the street with me, as a friend of mine only recently discovered.
1 comment:
We thought of you today in France when we did exactly the same thing! A man was throwing litter out his car window, while parked in a space outside a supermarket -- not more than a few feet from the garbage can. He looked fairly embarassed when we appeared at his window, smiled and picked up his garbage saying "Here, let us just put that in the bin for you."
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