What's in the Bag?

Sometimes it is the little things in life that make a day special.  I have a neighbor, I actually don't even know this neighbor's name and have never talked to them.  I live in a fairly large neighborhood and actually know a lot of my neighbors on a first name basis.  I attribute this to staying at home and just being around and having kids.  We are outside all of the time, walking and you tend to talk to your neighbors.  Well, this neighbor, who I think is probably a pretty special person; I do not know. 

This neighbor makes me curious every Thursday.  See, Thursday is trash day.  Every day on trash day this neighbor (I must admit I have a gender bias here and think it is a woman, so I will refer to this neighbor as a female from now on) leaves a brown paper bag folded closed, on top of both her normal trash can and her recycling trash can.  Hmm.  What is in that bag?

Is it a cookie, a muffin, a sandwich?  Is it homemade or some sort of Ding Dong thing store bought?  Or is it healthy, like carrot sticks or pretzles?  Or maybe it isn't food at all.  Maybe it is a thank you note, a comic book or a baseball card.  Does it change or is it exactly the same every week, or is it seasonal?  What is in that bag?  Regardless of what is the bag, I think I know what it means.  It is saying, I appreciate you and the fact that you came to work today to take my garbage off the curb and you probably love your job but maybe it wasn't what you envisioned for yourself when you were 10 years old. 

And what does the garbage man think of that bag.  I assume he is grateful, but is he?  It should be the thought that counts, but if he is getting carrots sticks and a Jehovah Witness pamphlet every week, maybe not so much.

It makes me want to show more appreciation.  I could do more for my garbage men and my mail carrier and all the other people who do things for me (I know that they get paid) daily and weekly.  What a world it would be if we were all out there handing out cookies in little brown paper sacks all day long.   It may make people aspire for more, it may help them be content or it may help them dream.  It definitely would make me take a look at other people's situation and be thankful for my own.