In high school I had a Speech and Dramatics teacher that impressed me more than any other. Of course, that was because I loved her class of prose, poetry and our school plays. She was the typical old “school marm”……time had passed her by and she was puggy with a reddish face and graying head of hair.

She fell in love with a man when she was young but he married her sister. She never married and teaching was her life. She was one of the first (back in the late 40’s) to teach by illustrating her meaning. One morning she was talking about body language, only back then it was called, “actions speak louder than words.” Semantics may rule on what anything is called.

To show how we often follow actions rather than words she had all of us leave our chairs and walk into the hall. With a grand gesture she had one hand on the door-knob as she moved her other arm in a half-circle motion to enter the room. It wasn’t until we sat down that she got our attention…..she actually said, “after me” but with the indication of her arm ushering us in…..we all went like a bunch of little dummies. Pretty humbling to big-headed seniors.

This morning I was in the living room reading quietly when I heard the garbage truck stopping and starting as the men picked up the “offerings” at the curbs. I often watch them because it makes me feel good to see the dregs of the past week go into the huge truck. Last week as I watched it was a young man doing the picking up. He took the lid off the large plastic container and slung it to the ground. It got my attention.

He slammed the container against the end-gate of the truck when he dumped it and then hurled it back towards where the lid lay. Now I am not an expert on body language but I would say he doesn’t like his work and didn’t like my Rubbermaid container. It left me with a bad feeling….like he spit on it as well.

This morning, once again I heard the truck approaching. As it came to a stop in front of our house a different man swung off the truck to pick up the container. He let the lid float down to the grass and rolled the trash to the back of the truck. Then he picked it up, shook it to get the last pieces out and rolled it back next to the lid. I sat analyzing the whole thing.

I don’t know either man. I only saw them from a distance and yet I think I can tell a lot about “who” they are. Situations may have been terribly different for each of them on the days I saw them but by their actions I drew conclusions. Of course since I’m retired and can mull over things like that I sat rocking and wondering.

I thought of my old teacher long ago. Actions can certainly speak louder than words and our body language “tells” on us at times….no matter how we present ourselves when we know we’re being watched. The mouth can say one thing but our actions and facial expressions will often expose a different attitude.

To conclude….last week’s pickup man left me feeling bad. The service was the same, both times my garbage was picked up, but I prefer a gentler and kinder garbage man to empty my trash. (At least, look like it and treat my stuff better, OK?)

OK…..I can hear my son John saying, “Yah mom, the guy you saw today is probably a serial killer……last week’s guy is no doubt a first class citizen that you misjudged.” Having said that, I guess I’ll leave the analytical job up to those who know what they’re talking about.

Now you know what this old retired lady thinks about while she has her second cup of coffee in the morning. Go out and have yourselves a good day……it‘s time for me to get busy too .

Until tomorrow, I am,
Essentially Esther