Thursday, July 12, 2007

On Dumpster Diving

Our recycling pile has been extraordinarily high lately. Our bookshelf has been purged of most books with easy or irritating answers, and instead of donating them to our local thrift shop which seems overwhelmed with donations, I set them in boxes at the end of the driveway, hoping that someone would find them and help themselves. Maybe someone who could still be comforted by easy answers.

Sure enough, someone did come along. We didn't want to embarrass him by staring out the window, but we live a pretty moderate life and sometimes need to create drama and recreation out of the ordinary. So we hid behind the blinds.

He took his time going through the boxes. We imagined his excitement as he began a small mountain of reading materials beside him on the road. The kids made some snooty comments about people going into other people's garbage. I reminded them that we live in a culture that preaches reuse and recycle, so maybe we should embrace the idea of living it?

Meanwhile the book mountain grew. How would he carry it home; we wondered.
He crossed the street carefully, arms down laden with books on theology, and books with seven easy answers to any problem the Christian Ever Had. He deposited the stack at the door of the Mennonite Church. And he made his way across the parking lot cradling a single book.

The Art Of Sensual Massage.

(of course, that wasn't OUR book. Cough, snuffle, shuffle.... Somebody must have left it here.... How embarrassing.....)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Too funny!

Erin said...

Hee, hee!

Roo said...

:)

gloria said...

I am glad he donated the books though...

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean,
We also found "The Art of Sensual Message" to be such an easy and irritating book. Good Ridance!

Louise said...

OH that is TOOOOOO FUNNY!!

it's a gong show... said...

Thanks for making me laugh today!

Anonymous said...

Are you for real?? That's hilarious!

Linda said...

I suppose Mennonites don't read books about sensual massage. What a thoughtful man! I'd love to meet him someday.

Bonnie said...

That's hilarious!! I can only imagine what the church is going to do with those books!!??

Judy said...

What?! Are you telling me that there ISN'T an easy answer?!

Well, now what am I gonna do?

Seriously, I want back all that time I spent reading those books that promised me ease. I don't care about the money spent on the books - I want my TIME back.

(pms rant going on. sorry.)

Anonymous said...

How funny :)

Melissa said...

That is too funny...next time you want to get rid of a book on sensual massage, send it to me, okay?

lettuce said...

hahaha love this post.