Something happened yesterday that made me smile. I was taking the hound for a hike in the foothills. At this particular trailhead there’s a few garbage cans in the first quarter mile or so for depositing of pet waste. The hound did his business almost as soon as he started running, so I gathered it up in the poop bag and keep walking up the trail to where the garbage can is. I come around the corner and… no can?? I was standing there looking perplexed and then noticed some guy was coming towards me, walking back to the trailhead.

He said, “I’ll take your bag. I’m going that way anyway.” I thanked him and said I really appreciate it. He said, “No problem we have to look out for each other, right? Just be sure to pay it forward”.

I don’t know why, but that simple act put a smile on my face. There’s a lot of negativity in the news lately so it was nice to encounter a good human.

This reminded me of something called the “Shopping Cart Theory”:

The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing. To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right. There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it.

What kind of person are you? Do you always return the cart? Only when the return stall is close by or if someone is watching you? Never return it?

Now go enjoy the weekend. Get outside. Pay it forward.

And return the damn cart.