Yesterday as I was leaving the shop for the day, I saw saw a man on a bicycle picking through our garbage. He wasn’t homeless or badly-off by any means- he was on a rather nice road bike with pedal clips and all. It was raining a little bit, and he was wearing his off-road-riding-in-the-rain gear, so I was slightly surprised to see him drag his bike onto the sidewalk to continue looking through the garbage.
As he had ridden up to the garbage pile, he’d noticed a deskchair which the neighbours had thrown out. After pushing it around a little bit to make sure the rollers worked, he got back on his bike, and while riding, pushed the chair beside him down the street.
The best thing I ever got out of the garbage was a pair of crutches. I was about 9 years old, and I remember walking around with them in our garage for a few hours, pretending my legs were injured. The best that came of it was that my armpits hurt like hell for three days, and I was glad that my legs weren’t broken.
There’s nothing wrong with picking through the garbage. Which is why I shred all my personal documents.
