Nice to see
For the last three hours I've watched one of my neighbors shovel and clear snow. He started by using his snowblower for a while, going over and over the driveway until the bulk of the snow in the driveway had been cleared. Then he used his shovel to take care of the details. He even went into the street to make sure there was a completely clear path to the road from the driveway.
Now the driveway looks like a work of art. The lines of snow at the edges are even and straight. There is barely a spot of snow on the driveway itself. It is a far cry from my rushed, grumbling, hack at the snow in my driveway. My driveway is functional, but looks like a 12 year-old rushed to do it so he could get back to video games and get his mom off his back.
What impresses me about my neighbor's work is that all of the time and effort he spent was on another person's driveway. All of his work was done before he even touched his own driveway or sidewalk. The owner of the driveway, however, is slightly disabled and has difficulty even walking to his car from his house. Without his neighbor's help, he and his wife would be snowed in until it all melted away.
All of this is a nice rebuttal to my own cynicism (not that anyone would pick up on that from reading my blog). There is still some goodness displayed in this world, even in the small effort of shoveling a neighbor's driveway.
December 6, 2003 01:48 PM