Skip to main content

The Law of the Garbage Truck

By David J. Pollay


One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches!

The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck'.

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally, just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

Comments

What people are reading...

A lesson on parenting: Father and son tread water 15 hours overnight in the Atlantic with help from Buzz Lightyear

Father and son tread water 15 hours overnight in the Atlantic with help from Buzz Lightyear This is an inspiring story about parenting.  Time and time again, as parents we are caught up in the tide of life.  Sometimes the tide gets too overwhelming that we begin to lose faith.  Tides come in different forms, it could be stress of parenting itself or a work/financial problem, and there are those tides of real physical danger much like in the news above. If you were the parent in this news, yourself and your son - two tiny specks in an infinite pool of deep blue and dangerous waters, to see your son slowly drift away while you just stare in utter helplessness would break your spirit faster than you could blink your eye.   Most parents in the same dire situation would swim themselves to death and possibly hold on for as long as humanly possible to provide an anchor or a floater for his/her kid til help arrives.  Even ...

The Last Cab Ride

A true story by Kent Nerburn Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. One time I arrived in the middle of the night for a pick up at a building that was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a minute, then drive away. But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself. So I walked to the door and knocked. “Just a minute,” answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80′s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it ...

The Sense of Goose

by Dr. Harry Clarke Noyes  ARCS NEWS, Vol. 7, No. 1, January 1992  Next  fall, when  you see Geese  heading South for  the Winter, flying along  in V formation, you might  consider what science has dis‐  covered as to why they fly that way:  as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an  uplift for the bird immediately following. By  flying in V formation the whole flock adds at least  71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.  People who share a common direction and sense of community  can get where they are going more quickly and easily  because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.  When  a goose falls  out of formation,  it suddenly feels the drag  and resistance of trying to go it alone  and quickly gets back into formation to take  advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front....

Freedom of Speech

"DE LIMA: FREEDOM OF SPEECH NOT LICENSE TO RUIN CREDIBILITY" (sic).  I could not agree more!  I would just like to understand though whether this statement is really unadulterated or is it just another attempt at bending “morality” where it is convenient. I seem to remember not long ago the same senator effectively smearing the credibility of some of her colleagues in the government and its institutions, all the while exercising her constitutional right to “Freedom of Speech.”  I have heard claims coming from this Senator about how sure she is that President Duterte is behind DDS and EJK.  In fact, she is so sure that she’s even gone to great lengths of humoring international media with interviews and clamoring for international intervention on our domestic affairs, including imposing sanctions on our nation, all because of the ongoing “government-inspired” EJK.  I have also heard her say, and she is definitely sure about it too, about DOJ fabricating lies...

History: The Battle of Bataan

These are the writings on the wall of the Dambana ng Kagitingan (Shrine of Valor) in Mt. Samat, Pilar, Bataan - a monument built to remember and to celebrate the resilience of the human spirit.  Reading through the inscriptions sent chills to my bones.  It makes me proud to be a Filipino, even more so being a Bataenyo (a native of Bataan).  Let this be a reminder to us all, of the valor and the glory of our roots.  We shall not forget...  "Our mission is to remember."   Photo by Irwin Richard Dizon The Battle of Bataan On this ground gallant men chose to die than surrender. From all corners of the Philippines they came, youthful and brave, to make their last stand in Bataan against an implacable enemy which had marched through Asia. What transpired was a ferocious combat between raw, ill-equipped recruits against seasoned, well-armed troops.

#WeArePhilippines

Recently, we have seen a lot of political disorder in the Philippines that has literally divided, and continue to divide, our nation.  Majority of the government officials, who the Filipino people have chosen to represent their best interests, have misused the trust and the authority that the people have given them to further their individual (and that of their party’s) political interest.  This observation is not only directed at one person or one political party.  Parties and individuals have been hell-bent on criticizing anyone who sits on the other side of the fence.  Privilege speeches and press conferences, under the guise of “at the interest of the Filipino people” have been used to either discredit another official or to defend a “personal attack” directed at them by a member of the opposition.  This has fueled the nation’s divide and has distracted the Filipino people’s sight away from the positive things that currently unfolds right in front of us. O...

Lesson from the Hedgehogs

It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold. The hedgehogs, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions. After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.

Lost Wallet, A Great Love Story

As I walked home one freezing day, I stumbled on a wallet someone had lost in the street. I picked it up and looked inside to find some identification so I could call the owner. But the wallet contained only three dollars and a crumpled letter that looked as if it had been in there for years. The envelope was worn and the only thing that was legible on it was the return address. I started to open the letter, hoping to find some clue. Then I saw the dateline–1924. The letter had been written almost 60 years ago. It was written in a beautiful feminine handwriting on powder blue stationery with a little flower in the left-hand corner. It was a “Dear John” letter that told the recipient, whose name appeared to be Michael, that the writer could not see him anymore because her mother forbade it. Even so, she wrote that she would always love him. It was signed, Hannah. It was a beautiful letter, but there was no way except for the name Michael, that the owner could be identified. May...

Welcome to My Standpoint...

I am a Civil/Structural Engineer by education, a Quality Professional by profession, a wannabe-but-chose-not-to-be doctor, a frustrated programmer, a tech enthusiast, an avid sportsman, a hater, a lover, a friend, a son, a brother, a husband and a father. I love music, but music never really liked me -- and so does dancing. I love to write (at least I'd like to think so) but never found the time. I love to draw/paint, but again the busy everyday life took that away from me. The only things that stuck with me throughout the busy-ness of life would be my passion for Tennis, Judo, computers and just about anything that gets plugged in to an electric socket or gets powered by batteries (conventional or solar) -- children's toys included. :) Having said that, I guess I can summarily describe myself as a "Jack of trades, (and hopefully) master of some". I have always believed that knowing a little bit of everything is better than knowing everything about just one thi...

The Problem with Dandelions

A man who took great pride in his lawn found himself with a large crop of dandelions. He tried every method he knew to get rid of them. Still they plagued him. Finally he wrote to the Department of Agriculture. He enumerated all the things he had tried and closed his letter with the question: "What shall I do now?" In due course, the reply came: "We suggest you learn to love them."