TREENA MIELKE/On the Other Side
The garbage issue in Rimbey seems to have surpassed the four-bag limit.
People everywhere are talking about garbage, of all things.
Even as the heat of the sun takes our cold winter air and shakes it until it warms up and winter’s drabness starts to disappear under the magic of spring’s potpourri of colors, they chose to continue to talk about garbage.
They are still talking about it even after the waitress brings their second cup of coffee and the sun rises higher in the sky.
They are, in fact, getting quite worked up over garbage.
And it’s not a conversation that goes like this: “Did you take out the garbage, honey?”
“No, really it’s your turn, honey.”
No, whose turn it is is not the issue.
The issue, which is filling the empty space of silence in coffee shops and out on the street, is a new bylaw put in place by a town council whom some people believe is still too wet behind the ears to know what they are doing.
The bylaw states that garbage must be put in a container with a tight fitting lid or it will not be picked up.
In this proactive move, council thought they were being just that —proactive.
Their intent was to keep the town tidy, or at least tidier.
Everyone knows that birds and dogs and cats love garbage. They especially love to get into it, eat some of it, and scatter the rest around so that it looks really awful.
And when it’s scattered around like that, people get really annoyed.
They walk by, turn up their noses and call the town office.
“Do something,” they cry, outraged. “These pesky creatures are getting into our garbage. It’s disgusting.”
And so, in an effort to answer these outraged cries, council did.
And now people are even angrier.
“What! A container. Are they crazy? They cost $14 at least. Never will I pay that.”
In the community where I live, we have a three-bag limit. We do not, however, have to put our garbage in a container. My neighbors, however, have a container. Lots of times I have looked over there as I am picking up the garbage some pesky bird who flew in from Rimbey scattered all over my front lawn thinking, “Geez, I wish I had a container. Then this wouldn’t happen.”
In my little world, I have been privileged enough to know great joy, if only in short little ‘great joy’ spurts of time. I have also felt the depths of despair that sadly enough, seemed to last longer.
But out of it all, I have learned or at least am trying to learn that ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff,’ should be a golden rule each and every day, in fact, each and every minute.
And, perhaps, we all need to remember that garbage is only just that, really.
Garbage.