Make the World a Better Place

I am currently a resident of the state of Utah. Utah has a thrift organization that is comparable to Goodwill, or Salvation Army called Deseret Industries. People bring in their old stuff/junk/crap and others pay money for it. One man's crap is another man's...crap. So each ward in each stake of the church does service at these centers and it was my ward's turn. Now, normally I would just pass the sign-up sheet in Relief Society on to the next person with a very valid excuse in my head like, "That's Tuesday night, I'm usually pretty tired on Tuesdays." Or "I would love to serve but DI sometimes has lots of crying children and my hands get grimy when I look through the t-shirts." Thus, preventing me from attending a service opportunity. Well, I have been feeling a little blue lately and I keep hearing quotes and suggestions about how your troubles seems to go away when you serve others.

The point: I signed that sign-up sheet and I marched down to Deseret Industries with my latex gloves to serve Utah's thrift comunity from 6 to 8 pm.

Result: My troubles did not melt away, but I do feel good about my time spent at DI sorting and matching Mens, Womens, and childrens shoes. There are two reasons for this positive feeling. First, I was helping the needy, clothing the poor, serving my fellow man etc. etc. etc. Second, I was ridding the world and indeed the entire thrift community of many bad pairs of shoes. I took the liberty of throwing away every faux flower, plastic beaded, rhinestone studded shoe I saw. I probably threw away 5 pairs of off-white, square toed, low-heeled, size 6 1/2 pumps, 10 pairs of black clunky clogs, and at least 20 pairs of orthopedic sandals. Who is wearing all these bad shoes?! And who, in their right mind, would ever buy a pair of heels made out of colorless acrylic??!! Let's just say that if there are any grandma's who are planning to pick up another pair of elasticized, flat beige orthopedics, they are going to have to look somewhere besides the St. George DI.