Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 109 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Life is Like a Garbage Truck

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 109 of our Trek, and yesterday we came to understand that our life is like flying in a jet. If the plane loses cabin pressure, we must put on our masks first, so that we can then assist others. It is the same in all areas of life. We need to take care of ourselves, so that we will have the ability to assist others. Today we want to learn how to prevent our lives from becoming like a garbage truck.

In celebration of our 100th day of our Wisdom-Trek, please check out Wisdom-Trek.com and sign up for our drawing for a free Wisdom-Trek t-shirt that will take place on October 5th.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is amazing how quickly the hours rush by each day. I realize that we are making progress on the various projects that we are working on, but there never seems to be enough hours in the day. That is how life’s trek is. We slowly and deliberately continue climbing toward the summit one small step at a time. We know that if we continue to follow the trail each day, we will reach the destination eventually. What is slowing you down today?

As we head out of camp today, we notice that the garbage bins are overflowing onto the ground, and there is garbage strewn all around. We comment to each other that we sure hope that the garbage truck picks it up soon. What a mess it is! We then think about the purpose of a garbage truck, which is to pick up other people’s smelly and gross garbage and take it somewhere else and dump it. This reminds me of a story of how, if we are not careful, our lives can become like a garbage truck.

This true story was experienced by David Pollay on a business trip to New York City, and it goes like this.

“I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, the car skidded, the tires squealed, and at the very last moment our car stopped just one inch from the other car’s back-end.

I couldn’t believe it. But then I couldn’t believe what happened next. The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. How do I know? Ask any New Yorker, some words in New York come with a special face. And he even threw in a one finger salute! I couldn’t believe it!

But then here’s what really blew me away. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was friendly. So, I said, 'Why did you just do that!? This guy could have killed us!' And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, “The Law of the Garbage Truck®.” He said:

'Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they look for a place to dump it. And if you let them, they’ll dump it on you. So when someone wants to dump on you, don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Believe me. You’ll be happier.'”

This story should cause you to reflect. How often do you let other people’s garbage trucks dump their trash on you, and then how often do you transfer their garbage and spread it to other people – at work, at home, on the streets? We should not do this; however, that's easier said than done. When we overreact to people who "dump their garbage" on us, we need to realize that what the other person does is his or her problem,