My Civic Duty

Hi All!

Thanks for all of the comments on yesterday's post - I really felt welcomed back!

Work yesterday went well. Since there was only one therapist in the office things were a bit slower than normal - and that was nice! Of course, two other therapists "popped in" to see how work is going on the new offices. You did know that the office is moving, right? The proposed move date is January 8th but that all depends on if the work is complete and the carpet is in! I also found out yesterday that I am responsible for moving the office stuff since Linda probably won't be up to it. Fun, fun!

Oh well! I guess packing a few boxes won't kill me!

This weekend I got a notice that I have been selected for Jury duty. This will be the second time I have been selected since moving to Texas. The first time I was still working and wasn't selected because I had just testified in a child abuse case two days before showing up for jury duty. Not that the testifying was fun but it might have been better than getting selected for a jury. This time we will see what happens.

The whole jury duty has had me thinking about "civic duty." I remember being taught about civic duty in high school history classes - probably in Government class. Part of the duty was jury duty, of course, but we also were told that we had a duty to take care of our city, state, country and to do everything we could to make it a better place to live in. Part of that involved not littering.

I am sure that this was a "keep the high school cleaner" campaign but for some reason, it really stuck with me. Partly because it makes sense - littering just makes the place you live in dirty and who really wants that? Partly because keeping the area clean made me feel like I was doing something - however small - to help others around me.

Do you think they still teach that in schools today? Do parents reinforce these teachings at home?

I thought about this as I was filling up my car with gas. A truck full of teens pulled up at the pump next to me and while they were getting gas, one teen seemed to be "cleaning" out the truck cab. This involved basically shoveling anything deemed worthless out of the door and onto the ground. As I was waiting for the car to fill up I watched the shoveling with wonder. Part of me wondered if the "kids" were going to pick up the trash and deposit it in the trash can not more than five feet away from them. Another part of me just sighed because it knew the answer. Of course they weren't going to pick anything up!

Watching the old newspapers blow across the lot really got to me. In fact, I actually moved and chased the paper, picked it up and headed for the trash can. One of the teens actually looked at me in surprise. I asked him if he wanted the paper - he said no and I deposited it in the trash can.

I wanted to tell the teens that littering just makes a mess out of their environment but I didn't.

Would it have been my civic duty to tell them?

I wonder.

Trisha

Voice Update: Still doing okay. I didn't do my massage yesterday even though I did do some inhale voicing. Today I will need to get more of both in so that my voice improves. Sometimes it is annoying that I have to work at something - having a speaking voice - that pretty much everyone else just takes for granted. Then I think about the people who have to work at walking. And breathing. I am lucky I only have to work on my voice.