Why Do We Always Leave It To Someone Else

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 67, 26 August 1965, Page 3

Why Do We Always Leave It To

Someone Else

The habit niany of us have in leaving someone else to tidy up after us is discussed by the Rev. N. R. Martin in this week's Voice of the Churches. Congratulations to the borough council for providing such neat, unobtrusive and effective containers for litter along the grass frontage in Tongariro Street. Baskets for the disposal of paper and lunch wraps and orange skins and bottles can be made so that they do not detract from the attractiveness of the area, and they are efficient for their work. The only question is, will the people in Taupo use them?

Throughout this country the roads and waysides are littered with the rubbish that we so carelessly throw away. We push it through the window of the car when we are travelling; drop it as we walk down the street; leave it lying about round the picnic tables and grassed scenic areas; and we think nothing of it. Surely this says something to us of our state of mind, as well as our way of life. » It is a perpetual problem and a headache for successvive councils and authorities. And for all the "Clean up Taupo" campaigns this is not the answer to the problem. We need to learn to be tidy, to respect the property of others, to keep what is good so that we hand it on better than we received it. Yes, no doubt this has to start with my own desk — and yours! And perhaps that is jiist where we have to start, with ourselves.

| How many of us pick things up after us? Senior nurses leave the cleaning up to juniors; so does the office staff; so do parents; and husbands are notorious for leaving their wives to clean up after them. But why? What is wrong with us as individuals that, when we have finished a job, we cannot clean up the mess? Have we no pride in a work well done? Have we no sense of responsibility? Is it below our dignity to do the little manual duties, the unpleasant duties that we so easily leave to others?

The teacher came into the room where the men were sitting round, hot and tired and dusty from walking the roads, and he noticed that there was no servant to do the work of washing their feet. They were not prepared to do it either, so Jesus took a towel and a basin and did it Himself. And He said, "I have given you an example that you ought to wash one another's feet." Nothing was too lowly for Him, but then there were no paper-covered ice-creams or lollies in those days.