O.P.T.

We're all familiar with the acrostic OPM. It's what all the financial gurus tell us will make us rich: Other People's Money. Well, it hasn't worked for me. But what I want to address is OPT. I have over 27 years of experience in this matter. And quite frankly, I'm sick to death of it. We own property in Cherokee County, Georgia, which we visit about twice a year. While there one thing that I have done on every visit home since 1983 is take two huge plastic bags and pick up all the trash that people have thrown out on my property. Other People's Trash (OPT). Almost daily here in SC I pick up trash thrown out of passing cars onto the church property. Almost every Sunday morning I pick up beer cans or bottles. I don't know what goes through the minds of those who do this, whether is it ignorant thoughtlessness or maliciousness. After dinner last evening my wife and I went for a walk at a private garden that is open to the public. It is beautiful and lush, but kept up by volunteers. As we came to the center, there were four muddy napkins on the ground. It appeared that someone stepped off the path and got their shoes muddy. So they produced these four napkins and cleaned off their shoes, but just left the napkins there on the ground. Why? Do such people think the world is their trash can? In the 27 years we have owned the property in Georgia, I must have picked up a ton of beer and soda cans or bottles, along with fast food bags, Wal-Mart bags, household garbage, you name it. If I threw any of this in the yard of any one of those persons, they would probably want to fight me over it. I've never done anything to them, yet they not only feel free to trash my personal property, but all along the road above and below my property as well. When God created man (Adam) and placed him in the pristine garden (earth), He commanded him to keep the garden, not to trash it. Yet trash it is exactly what man has done. I just don't get it. Why can't people dispose of their trash properly? Did I mention dirty baby diapers dropped in parking lots? Or chewing gum spit all over public sidewalks? OPT, I hate it.