The dumpster wars...

​My weeks are full of stuff.  I mean random stuff.  I’m sure yours are also.  Sometimes when my husband asks me how my day was, I don’t even remember where I was or what I did.  My building in Charleston has an alley that runs beside it with all these dumpsters in it.  Many a nefarious act has occurred in, near or hidden by these dumpsters.  We’ve had people literally defecate right outside our side door, hidden by a dumpster but not hidden when you step out the door!  It’s kind of scary at night, and almost as scary during the day. 
 
We have shared a dumpster with a law firm as we didn’t have that much trash.  It ended up getting to the point that one or the other of us would have more than the usual, and the sharing thing was becoming not worth the hassle, so we ordered our own dumpster a month or so ago.  Everything went along fine for the first couple of weeks, and then our dumpster is all the sudden overflowing with stuff.  Bags were everywhere.  That continued, so we called and had a lock put on our dumpster (for a monthy $10.00 fee – can you believe that??)  Anyway, after the lock is put on, the problem gets worse.  Someone cuts our lock off and piles trash in, over and around the dumpster.  We get another lock, it gets cut off as well.   Waste Management is telling us we’re going to have to pay extra for all these additional bags and mess.
 
I’m at the office this week and my office manager is telling me all about this, and I’m saying, “Who in the world would be doing this?  I mean, what brought this on all the sudden?”  She says she doesn’t know, but she’s now called Waste Management and they’re bringing a lock bar for the dumpster that can’t be cut off.  We talk about it some more, and I begin to ponder.  I say, “Could this be someone in an apartment around here that’s seen a new dumpster put in?”  Then that seems a little weird.  Then it hits me.  I said, “You know, someone is really working hard to put their trash in this dumpster!  It’s almost like they think it’s theirs.  Is there a new business on Capitol Street that could think that this is their dumpster?”  The girls instantly say, “There is a new bakery over there.  Maybe it’s them.”  I said, “Well, pop over there and ask them.”  They’re like, “Well, you can’t just walk in and ask them if they’re abusing our dumpster!”
 
I’m thinking, “Well, you sure can!”  But we were all busy, so I put it on my list to sort out.  Tom and I are driving to Virginia to visit the grandchildren, and I just pop on Facebook and get the number of the bakery.  Call them up and launch into my story about “Not sure if you guys got a new dumpster too and ours are mixed up or what.”  The lady who answered the phone was nice as can be.  She says, “Well, SOMEONE put a lock on our dumpster!  We’ve had to cut it off twice!”  I start to laugh, and I say, “Well, that someone is Waste Management.”  She says they called Waste Management up to come and deal with the fact that someone has put a lock on their dumpster, and Waste Management says they didn’t do it.   
 
Long, long story short, after a very nice conversation with my bakery neighbor and an extremely long phone ordeal with Waste Management, we should be on the road to having a dumpster that isn’t a nightmare.  I told the lady on the phone I felt like I was in a reality show called “Dumpster Wars!”  We had a good laugh and got the problem solved.
 
And I wonder:  Do any of you have situations in your lives that you’re fretting over, drawing lines in the sand (or putting locks on the situation) and all the while, it could just be a misunderstanding?  Are you piling and piling things around the situation, building the case, carrying on about what is unfair and not right and shoving more things at the problem rather than getting to the root of the issue?  I have found in my life that almost EVERY time I get all torn up about something, thinking it went down a certain way, getting all bent out of shape, a simple conversation can set things right.  I’d encourage you today, back up, take a fresh look at that thing that’s bothering you, start thinking outside the box a bit, and you just may be able to work it out!  Jesus tells us that we are to work things out with our brothers, not to get in our corner and hunker down with our righteous indignation.  Let’s try it His way and see how much better it goes!

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