Shovelling

So today for about ten minutes I was parked outside the local hardware store. My mom had gone inside to buy some windshield wiper fluid. I was feeling pretty stupid because I didn't know how to refill it. Although, I'm positively sure if I was left to myself I could have figured it out. It wasn't really that complicated at all. The only part I would have screwed up is the punching-the-hood-of-the-car-to-open-it part. That wasn't entirely self-explainitory. 

Anyway, as I was sitting there with the snow falling serenely from the sky (we already have around two feet of heavy compacted snow and we're still getting more), I noticed this guy shoveling the sidewalk in front of me. Apparently he was used to the 20 degree weather, because he wasn't wearing a jacket or gloves. But he was  very diligent in his shoveling. He shoveled that whole sidewalk three times, made sure both edges were completely even, and even scooped up the small bits of snow that had fallen off of his shovel. I've lived in Buffalo for eight years now and have never seen a person pay so much attention to their shoveling as this man. After it was all clear, I was certain he was done. I mean, it looked pretty good to me. But then he began to chip away at the hard, icy snow that covered the pavement. Bit by bit he scraped it up and threw it into the snow bank, and little by little the new, soft snowflakes fell in behind him. To make my point, this was not an old man with all the time in the world on his hands. This was a twenty-something year old guy who probably had much better things to be doing. He doesn't work for the hardware, because the same three people have been running that store since the 80's. I have a suspicion he lives in the house next door. So, this guy just spent ten minutes or more (he was working when I pulled up) clearing a seven foot space of pavement with exact detail and preciseness, for no obvious reason, while the snow continued to fall. I was thoroughly impressed. 

My mom came back before he finished so I didn't get to see the final product. But it got me thinking. The whole situation was very much like life. Shit still falls, whether we shovel or not. But it's our shoveling that makes life work. He was methodical and purposeful, and now the sidewalk is a transportation masterpiece. I'd want to walk on that sidewalk over the sidewalks I shovel any day.