Trashed

So this morning, we're up and about early because my brother's sold his house to move out of the country.  This means that they had to be on a plane Sunday morning and there was just those few nagging things that had been left to the last minute.  Some of my duties, being in the Kingdom of Suburbia, is making sure I'm a good sibling, being as the only one I have left of blood is half-blooded, and just left the country for at least the next few years.

So, other than random looting of what's left behind (Arrgh!), there's cleaning to be had, chucking to be had, and with these plans underway, it's time to stop for breakfast.  

We go down to Ye Olde Shipley's (If you're from Houston, it's Shipley's.  Sure, there's a few Dunkin' Doughnuts, and the occasional Krispy Kreme, but mainly...Shipley's is our mainstay....if you're fancified and posh, you'll be surpassing most of the confections for Starbucks, Einstein Bros. Bagels, or the Kolache Factory...if you don't know what a Kolache is, you're not from Texas....it's like a pig-in-a-blanket on steriods...because everything's bigger in Texas...) and get our little Soul in line, waiting patiently for our turn so I can get something for breakfast.  Everything's going well until Mom sees some guy pop out of the dumpster behind the place, hop on his bike and speed away with a box.

"What is that man doing?" she asks.

"Mom, the guy is 'dumpster diving'.  Being the fact that he's chewing, he might have gotten himself some doughnuts for breakfast.  Augh...look at the flies."  (Because maggots gross me out, and I can't imagine eating like that....I'm not saying it's beneath me, but it's just something that I associate as gross - like bugs.)

"He's looking for something to eat?" mom asks, bewildered.

"Well, sometimes people look for things they think they can sell or keep.  One man's trash is another man's treasure."

My mother is Asian.  She's worked hard all her life, and she can't read or write.  There have been many a time when my mother walked blocks at a time, just to get to work, in the rain and the cold.  She has worked in the food service industry for ever, working for restaurants in the back, working for hotel restaurants and    she has recently retired from working at a school cafeteria after 24 years.  She came to America almost 40 years ago, and there's still a lot of America that she's never really seen.  Apparently, dumpster diving was one of those things.  

At this point, a man comes out the back, carrying what appears to be empty flour/mix bags, a box, and other discardables.  My mother beings to smack me on the shoulder (it's a mom thing), saying, "Hey, tell him not to throw that stuff on top of the guy."

I kind of stiffen at this request.  "Mom, I can't."

"Yes, you can!"

"No, mom, I really can't.  Dumpster diving is illegal.  If I tell that guy he's about to throw stuff on top of another guy, he'll yell at him.  And he'll call the cops.  And that guy might go to jail, just because he was hungry enough to get into a garbage can."

"Why is it illegal?"

"Because people want to be paid for everything.  Even the food they throw away.  They'd rather throw it away than give it to poor people, because they can't make money off of giving it to the poor.  So I can't yell at him, because the poor guy might go to jail."

"But...that looks heavy.  He's going to hit the guy in the dumpster for sure."

"Mom, why don't you think that guy hasn't popped out of the dumpster to yell at him for throwing stuff on top of him?  He knows it's illegal too, so he just keeps quiet and hopes that someone will throw something in on top of him worth something good."

At this point, my mother beings to cry.  (Oh, crap.)

She begins by saying, "I came to this country with nothing.  Men threw me away like trash.  Except for my last husband.  I was really lucky to have him.  I am lucky to have a roof over my head, and food in my fridge."  At which point, she beings to pray, because she's thankful.

I can respect that, although I'm not really religious like that.  But it makes me mad, that corporations rather just chuck food they don't think is sell-worthy rather than give it away (some places used to do that when I was younger...but more and more, they say they won't because they're concerned someone else might sell their old stuff to people that need it.....hogwash, but there you are).  All this damn food - wasted instead of feeding hungry people.