Garbage vs. NYC

I love walking long distances. It's the freedom and the ability of movement I enjoy the most, as well as taking in my surroundings.  I didn't want to take a train one Sunday to Whole Foods from my house- if you live or know anything about NYC subways on a weekend, you'd feel the same. So I decided to walk the 13.2 miles. For reference I live in the Bronx and the Whole Foods I went to is on the Upper West Side.  So I packed my book bag and went for it. The day was beautiful, I stopped and took pictures along my journey and of course the people watching was at it's prime (summers in NYC totally bring out the buffoonery in people). 

On my way, I became hyper aware of my surroundings, noticing the black worn in dots on the ground from gum and garbage everywhere. It started driving me crazy. I couldn't walk an inch without stepping over a napkin, a wrapper from some food, a cup, broken glass, etc. My mind started to wonder why anyone would want to live in this? As a business along the street, why would you want all of this garbage that leads into your store or along the path? Is it because we live in NYC and people have become so jaded that no one cares? As if walking to the corner to dump your garbage is a nuisance.  Fed up,  I decided to do something about it and contact the department of sanitation for NYC about the areas. So far I have received no response even after my follow up emails to them, but I'm very persistent and will keep at it.

Even in our apartment building garbage is an issue. There’s chutes on every floor and if what you have is too large, you bring it to the basement and place it in the specified section for the super to take out.  Yet, there's so many people who would rather leave their garbage outside of the chute doors or piled inside of the chute closet instead of opening and dumping it or bringing it to the basement. I'm thankful we don't live near that side of the building where the chute is located, but I feel sorry for who does.

It's sad to know that some people within the  community we live in, won't take care of what's theirs/ours.  Why would anyone want to walk along in trash or have their kids play on dirty sidewalks and parks or even allow it to pile up in their building? When you see people littering, tell them to throw their garbage in the garbage cans, hence the name.  We need to take care of every aspect of ourselves and that especially includes our living spaces.                                                                                                                                                      

Do any of you have similar experiences? If so, what did you or what are are you doing to make a positive impact? Drop a line in the comment section and let me know! 

If you see a can...put your garbage in it and tell a friend to tell a friend.

You good?

Have you ever worked within a space that your co-workers act as if you’re not on the same team? I’m sure most of you have experienced this or know someone who has. Unfortunately, its become a “norm” to expect this kind of behavior. Over the years I have learned to be passive with the rude and unwarranted conduct of others, but of course there are some that penetrate through. I’ve come a long way from shouting, cursing and standing up to make my point when treated this way...don’t judge me I was young. 

Not long ago I worked alongside a woman who initially greeted me with a hug and a smile upon my first day. That quickly changed by the fifth day, when a smile or look in my direction was nonexistent. I tried to think of what had changed...was my work not up to par? Nah, that wasn’t it, I know I’m great. Was I somehow offending her? Nah, that wasn’t it either. She stopped speaking to me directly with the exception of 5 or 6 times. Almost all of our communication was through a messaging system from the work email provider. This type of behavior went on until the day I stopped working with her- almost 6 months (life of a freelancer-thank God). Six months of one-way hostility.

I would think of how exhausting to must be to live in a space like that- all that energy that could be put elsewhere. It got to a point where she would send me emails to accuse me of not doing the work correctly cc’ing others or possibly bcc’ing (this is just a guess). Every single time she would make those accusations, my responses always proved her wrong. She assumed a lot and didn’t feel the need to further investigate if she was correct. So each time she would make herself look incompetent, which is ironic because that’s what she wanted for me. My final straw with her was when she sent yet another email with incorrect information and decided to try and chastise me- cc’ing the head of the department. I rebutted with facts laid out about how she must have the wrong information and stated all of the real facts in detail. She responded and took took off the head of the department on the chain, to apologize to me and suggest we work on a system that she can easily go off of. Sneaky right? Fully aware of her tricks I made sure to get the last word in and add the head of the department back to the email chain, so that they could see she was incorrect, once again. Sure that may be perceived as petty to some, but I refuse to have someone make me be out to be less than. I ended my email correspondence by telling her she needs a hug and offering to give her one, she clearly needed some positive energy.

I have not once understood the concept of putting others down to build yourself up. It doesn’t work and you can make yourself out to be a villian when there’s no need. You’ll not ever be high up enough that you can’t be knocked down, so be careful how you treat others. I don’t know what may have been going on in her life during that time, but it didn’t have anything to do with me. I do wish she would have spoken to me face to face as a woman, but when you’re a coward you hide. She seems to need some courage from the Wizard and a Super Soul Session with Oprah to figure out the source of her hostility. We can all continue to learn and do better and there’s nothing wrong with apologizing for behavior that we don’t want to represent us. Let’s have a moment of silence for all of the people we have come in contact with throughout our lives that need to sit down and have a coke and a smile.

Old ad, timeless saying.