Need your garbage cans cleaned? Don't call us

We would like to take a moment of silence to remember a certain large bird that perished on our electrical wires yesterday, sometime before noon. We regret that the bird did not receive an altogether respectable burial by the representative of the local power company, which became apparent only when the Hero came home from work and inquired about the meaning of a bird leg lying in the middle of the sidewalk next door. No services are being held for the bird, who was of unknown residence, and of whom nothing is known other than that it apparently had a very bad sense of direction. Or very bad luck. In other news...


Our small group that meets for Bible study and a healthy dose of sweets each week has been endeavoring to find some type of service project in which we might all participate together. Preferably this would be something involving food, as that seems to be a subject everyone in the group takes an interest in.


But organizations seem to have all the help they need in distributing food to those in need. The first organization at which we inquired suggested that we might engage in an alternative activity, such as cleaning garbage cans. 


The enthusiasm with which this idea was received by the group was somewhat less than perhaps the organization was looking for. It was suggested that the task could be accomplished by power-washing the cans. From 20 feet away.


"Hey, let's just buy them NEW garbage cans," someone said, a suggestion we could heartily support.


For a time this discussion was idled as we got back into the evening's Bible topic. Our leader announced that he had finally hit upon the idea of writing out our assigned verses to read aloud and had placed the slips of paper in a container. The container was an empty box of mints, which was the only thing he had handy at the time, although he promised to try to dress it up or in some manner disguise its prior purpose.


"We could decoupage it for you," one of the women suggested.


"Yeah, we could do it as a service project," I said.


Just as Bob was probably beginning to wonder why he had not pursued some other interest or hobby that would have been simpler than teaching us, such as wrestling wild animals, another voice popped up: "Or, we could just BUY you a new box." Which left us still in search of a project to do.


Further suggestions followed in subsequent meetings: repair a ceiling, perform cleaning chores. Though all had merit, we were having trouble mustering up enthusiasm for any.


"Maybe we could just make lunches, and drop them off somewhere," someone finally said. This brought us full swing to our original idea of involving ourselves in some way with food. We may not be particularly creative, but we ARE consistent.