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For just the second time since coming out here, I put together a small plastic bag of odds and ends that cannot be burned or composted (plastic, broken glass). I saw the Waste Management truck go by earlier. But now, walking down to get my mail, I see the garbage still sitting where I left it. This is a puzzle. They took my neighbors' stuff; why not mine? So, I pick it up and carry it back to the yard until next Monday. Maybe they just didn't notice my bag because it is so small in relation to most. Or maybe the fact that I don't put a bag out every week, so they don't look for it.

I have to be careful not to make too much of a possibly isolated incident, but this does fit a larger pattern that I have begun to notice. Namely, that there may be social and cultural consequences to this desire to live the plain life. The cultural assumption is to produce a certain minimum bulk of garbage every week. The failure to do so puts one outside the norm, and so outside of normal expectations. Another unstated expectation, governing most social activity, is that of easy transportation. Make a conscious decision to avoid reliance upon the automobile, and social connections become difficult and strained. The concrete steps in moving away from consumerism may turn out to be relatively easy. The tough part may be the tension of being divorced from the expectations of one's own culture and society.