Giving a brand new life, to something that’s, about to get thrown out, doing our share, to keep the environment less polluted, the values that this mother passed down, to her own daughter, translated…
Once I was home, as a thief, after I’d, “stolen” the goods from my parents, I’d, opened up the door, tipped up my toes, ready, to head back into my workshop, then, my mother suddenly, rushed from the kitchens, and opened up my bag.
Naturally, I was, shocked, I’d, counted up the items in my mind…hmmmmmmmmmm, these smaller things, they shouldn’t, get me into troubles at all, then, I’d, felt, a bit, better. But, my nerves, still got hung up in midair by my mother’s actions.
Like a prisoner, with weapons taken away, I’d, frozen in place, and, out of the corner of my eyes, I saw my mother, stuffed a cylindrical, white item, the size of a formula can.
Then, my expressions, immediately, switched over with my posture, and, hopped into that “channel” of “hey, don’t have me bring that stuff back all the time now!”
And yet, my own curiosities got the best of me. “What’s this?”, I’d taken out the white cylindrical tube, it’d, looked like a rolled up paper, or cloth, something I’d never seen in my life.
“This is very good!”, said my mother. Turned out, she knew a younger person who has a factory, who was about to expand his business, and, a ton of the items his factories manufactured, was about to get disposed of. I’d, estimated, that based off of my mother’s tendencies, the items that were, about to get thrown out, she would, surely, try her best, to make them useful again.
She’d torn a piece of, like the salespeople on the shopping channels, started to introduce to me, how good this sort of industrial cloth was to use, wiping everything down, the tables, the floors, even, the walls too, so long as you don’t wipe your mouth with it, everything else you wipe it with, will be good; and, as long as there’s, no grease on it, rinsing it off with water, it’s, a brand new sheet, no need to wash it hard, and deserving, of ten thousand kudos.
“The important thing was, I’d, saved it!”
I’d understood. She has a very strong sense of justice, and, has NO sense of taking advantage of someone else, I can imagine, that in that abandoned warehouse that got turned over upside down, “white” (the name I’d thought up at the moment” was like Private Ryan in war who’d needed saving.
And, she would NEVER allow “white” to feel: hey, I’m, still usable, so why am I, disposed of?, and get its share of PTSD, he would, give it, other tasks to do, use it up completely, until, “white” had all the assortments of medals, and, get discharged, from its services, honorably.
I’d stood, dumbfounded by the doorway, as my mother was yapping incessantly, I’d had the image of “white”, getting the assortments of medals pinned onto it, I was, almost, about to throw down my reusable shopping bag, and applauding my mother.
Before I’d called my mother crazy, I’d, quickly exited her house. Then, I’d felt moved, and thought: I was, certainly, the first one that my mother gave “white” to care for. Because, just like I knew her, she’d, known me too.
I’m really glad, that my living green had, rubbed off on people that I know, making me into the kindhearted woman (or crazy woman), that everybody knows; and I’m glad too, that I’d, become like my mother, from someone who’d, followed her footsteps, someone, whom she could, have these sorts of conversations with.
Although, there are, not enough number of us, those who, are doing their separate share, to help keep the environment clean………
And so, this mother’s belief of using and reusing everything, probably comes from her own younger years, and, she’d, passed this value of cherishing the usable things down to her own daughter too, and, this, is an inheritance, that more important than money, because, the daughter will surely, carry the values that she’d observed and learned from her mother on.
Life, the Obstacle Course 