When the temperature is unreasonably cold (to a weather- wimp like me, that’s anything under about 70 degrees), I forgo my bicycle due to the wind-chill factor, and my car due to the cost-of-gas factor, and trek back and forth from my office on foot. It forces me to move at a slower pace, enjoy the scenery, and have a good chuckle at what life has to offer.
You’ve heard the euphemism, “tossed his cookies” to describe vomiting, usually all over something. Last week, right there on the sidewalk, were said “tossed cookies.” Not the regurgitated kind, just what appeared to be a box of chocolate cookies literally “tossed” onto the sidewalk and abandoned there. Appreciating a good visual for the literal versus figurative use of language, I yearned for my camera (safe at home in my other bag) to capture this moment of likely unintended humor.
A day later on my way home, mid-intersection on a busy street lay a flattened-out lid from a cardboard packing box. On it, stamped with large block letters in blue ink, were the words ROTATE SLOWLY. What is a girl to do? My initial response was to rotate the lid and see what happened—probably not wisest choice considering the traffic. I cast a furtive glance around to locate the candid camera that was no doubt attached to the nearest lamppost, ready to capture the gullible or the magical thinkers. With a sigh of resig-nation, I walked on by. The image plagued me throughout the night, and the next morning I transferred my camera to the bag I’d been using for my work trek. I would photograph the dilemma and ask others what they would have done–an interesting study in human behavior.
Sadly, someone had resolved the issue by removing the lid. The lost cookies, on the next block, however were still scattered on the cement–although some had been removed/eaten, causing me to ponder issues around hunger/greed/discernment/germs/waste/littering
, etc., etc.
Hopefully the weather will warm soon and I’ll be back on my bicycle, spared these ponderable dilemmas.
