This is the second post in a series titled Sensei’s Stories – a collection of stories told by my sensei, each of which contains a valuable lesson. You can read the first post here.
There once was a town near the forest, and in this town lived a lady. This lady was a teacher who taught young children. In her spare time however, she also picked up trash from around the streets of town, in attempt to beautify it.
Soon, other adults began to take note of the lady picking up trash, and started to ridicule her behind her back. So frowned upon was the lady’s trash-picking habit that parents began to remove their children from the lady’s classroom. Soon thereafter, she lost her job, and then her home.
Now homeless, the lady continued to pick up trash around the city daily. The townspeople ignored her, continuing to throw their garbage out into the streets because, hey, the garbage lady would pick it up. And sure enough, she did. And this continued until the day she died.
On that day, the trash began to pile up in the streets. People had gotten into the habit of dumping garbage into the streets, so much so that even though nobody was picking it up, they could no longer stop themselves from doing it anyway. It didn’t take long for predators from the forest to make their way into town in search of an easy meal. Before long, the people were overrun with bears, wolves and coyotes, and it became dangerous to walk the streets of town at night.
Slowly, the people began to realize what an important role the trash lady had played in keeping their town not only clean, but safe. They began to miss her presence dearly. Finally, one brave young teen who realized the value the trash lady brought put his hand up and offered to pick up trash around the city going forward.
This time, he was not ridiculed, but celebrated – and compensated – for the service he was providing. When the town was clean again, the people built a statue to commemorate the lady who continued to pick up the trash even when no one was looking, thankful and relieved that their town was safe once again.
Wrapping it Up
When I asked my wife what she thought the moral of this story was, she joked: “Don’t litter.” Cheeky little… anyway, I digress. No, my sensei summed up the true moral of his story with a quote from Gandalf the Grey, of all people: “Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay… small acts of kindness and love.” Man, I cannot get enough of these stories. Hope you’re enjoying them too 🙂
