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The kid choked.
His form was OK. Nothing particularly egregious.
He stopped, took aim and let fly.
There was no urgency in his motion, no sense that it was a do-or-die moment. If he was imagining anything it might have been his being in a gym during a shoot around rather than a Game 7 in the dying milliseconds of a championship.
There was no pressure and the kid acted like it.
The wadded up bag launched from his hand, his right arm lingering in the air like a swan extending its neck while searching for worms; his right arm crossed sleepily across his chest. Any more relaxed and his parents would probably have to rename him Puddle.
The bag made its way through the autumn air like a projectile rather than lobbed wish looking for a soft place to land.
There was a mild wind but not enough of a gust to knock it off course. It was just a lazy shot. One given without too much thought and only half-hearted purpose.
Rote. As if he’d made the shot a million times before. Foregone and careless.
Ten feet away the bag hit the edge of the trash can and caromed away. It came to rest on the worn, browning grass. Dead.
But that’s not where the kid choked.
He came up short when he shrugged off the missed basket, turned and went on with his day.
Maybe he thought a city employee would come along and pickup his lunch time discards, disposing of it in a half empty trash can. Or a good Samaritan would do likewise. Maybe a hungry pigeon would appreciate whatever leftovers it could unravel from that crumpled paper.
I suspect that trash ceased existing for that kid the moment it bounced off the rim and onto the ground.
Not his problem.
But it will become ours.
Whether it’s just unsightly clutter messing up a pristine bay front view or an eventual piece of a garbage blob that plugs up city storm drains and causes minor floods or make their way to the Pacific, litter can quickly go from minor nuisance to problem.
If you want to keep storm drains free flowing and prevent potential flood damage this winter, shoot your shot and make sure your trash winds up where it belongs.
