Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Sharing, sharing, sharing

It wasn't a big thing.  But it was the kind of thing that made a big difference.

Monday evening and into the night, the snow began -- the first wave of what was forecast to be a major two-day snowstorm.  Tuesday morning we had to drive to Toronto (the next city over, at just a little over 45 minutes away by highway) for an important 7:20 a.m. medical appointment.  Going to bed Monday night I calculated my necessary wake-up time the next morning -- working backward from 7:20, starting with normal driving time in morning rush hour traffic, factoring in snow-clogged roads and maybe occasionally snow-blinded driving, and then adding whatever time would be needed to dig the car out from behind the inevitable snow-bank raised around and against it by the overnight snow plowing.

And that's what made the difference -- where it made the difference -- knowing that instead of having to use my own old-school snow shovel, I would be able to clear the road around the car in almost no time and effort at all with the wonderful big snow scoop that was leaning against my neighbour's front porch, ready to be borrowed whenever needed.

A neighbour's willingness to share a big snow scoop without having to be asked is a wonderful thing.  Our neighbour is like that, and it's one of the things that makes this a neighbour-hood.

I know I could buy a snow scoop of my own.  They can't be that expensive.  And I wouldn't have to borrow.  I could be master of my own snow clearing.  

But somehow that seems a lesser solution.  A smaller vision.  A loosening of one of the little bonds between us, and a little more of the private setting adrift that already is too characteristic of the way my life goes -- and the way a lot of lives go.
 
Besides, it would undo the seasonal balance that there seems to be between that snow scoop and the lawn mower that we shared the cost of, that sits in my back shed for both our use.

So I will eventually buy a big snow scoop myself -- but only when the one now leaning against my neighbour's front porch is broken, and I'll take my turn to buy the replacement.