Walk in to work

Generally speaking I avoid people and keep myself to myself but occasionally I struggle to do so. One such situation is when people just throw litter on the ground. I know that there are bigger problems in the World, I have not completely lost a sense of perspective, but I also like walking around clean streets.

I find it particularly annoying when someone throws litter on the ground while they're walking by a bin.

'Twas just such an occasion on my way in to work on Friday.

Now, I have three basic approaches to this situation:

1. Just pick up the rubbish myself and place it in a bin.

B. Pick up the rubbish and place it in the bag that the person who has dropped it is carrying so they take it home with them.

iii. Telling people exactly what I think of them.

Obviously the third one of those is the least calm, mature, and sensible. Equally obviously it is also the most tempting for me a lot of the time.

Like on Friday when I was walking in to work.

However, as I was walking toward the person who'd dropped a few pieces of paper on the ground (and appeared to have more paper to throw on the ground) I noticed that he seemed to be a little glazed of eye. He also seemed to have a couple of tics. As I was getting still closer I had a very clear image pop in to my head.

I had a scene in my head where I was loudly remonstrating with someone who had dropped a few pieces of paper on the ground where it turned out that the person in question had learning difficulties, and was quite possibly taking medication for something else, who would not be able to process what was going on and would just end up a tearful wreck. I had a scene in my head where I was basically shouting at someone who didn't really know what they were doing and making it look like I just randomly walked up to people who have more difficulty navigating the World and give them an instant nervous breakdown.

'Twas rather hard not to think that I'd be seen as the bad guy in this situation.

By the time I'd processed all of this I'd walked a good bit farther down the street, completely failed to actually get the rubbish off the pavement, and carried on towards my place of work as I'd been walking on auto-pilot.

But at least I didn't make anyone cry.