NEAT Friends Tell All

I love my job.  As part of the NEAT team, we have many friends in our communities.  Because they know what we do, and how we feel about some personal practices in daily lives, they may hide their disposable coffee cup when they walk by or explain that they only idled their car for a few minutes.  We never want people to revert back to the days of school where seeing NEAT staff and board makes the sudden guilt of their actions rise to the surface and erupt into heartfelt confessions.

While I hate that some people feel this need to confess or defend their actions, I love hearing about the proud moments when they made a change in their daily life that they are proud of.  Here is one of those stories.

I walked down to one of our local establishments that doesn't mind if we bring the dishes back to the office and return them later.  While waiting for my lunch order, I saw one of our NEAT friends.  She was sitting and enjoying her lunch and invited me to sit down while I waited.  Suddenly, she got this proud look of self-satisfaction on her face and told me she had to tell me what she did.  I smiled, as I always do, and waited for the reveal.  She told me about a place that she likes to go for soup and sandwich at lunch.  She said that she always takes paper for them to wrap her sandwich in, but she feels bad taking the disposable bowl and plastic spoon they provide for the soup.  She started using her own spoon, but she still had the bowl problem to solve.  The last time she got soup, she asked how large the serving is.  She wanted to let me know that she now has a bowl with a lid that she can take with her for her soup.  She solved her litter lunch problem.

As I said, I love these stories.  If she can work around her situation, so can you.