Lament of a Garbage Can Owner

This morning, around five-thirty, the funniest thing happened. I crossed 150th Street and ran my straight one-mile course. When I got to Queens Boulevard and Main Street, an elderly woman began screaming at me. I was running on the street, not on the sidewalk or on her lawn. I wondered, "What have I done at this hour?"
 
When I finally approached her, I discovered that she was not actually screaming at me. But she wanted me to hear her complaints. Somebody had taken away the cover of her garbage can. She had put all her garbage in the can and now the wind was blowing it away because the cover was missing. I went there and sympathised with her. What could I do?
 
-16 August 1980 
 

[Source: "Lament of a Garbage Can Owner" in Sri Chinmoy,  Run and Become, Become and Run, Part 4, Agni Press/Aum Publications, Jamaica, New York, 1981.]