Spirituality and Trash

Today is Easter and I am reminded in two ways of reasons why I am attempting this project. One is that my husband and I are trying to raise our two sons with a sense of spirituality without actually practicing an organized religion. I was raised in a non-practicing Jewish household and my husband was raised in a non-practicing Christian household and our boys are being raised in a non-practicing household. Through the years when they have asked “what religion are we?’ we have responded with some form of “Our religion is that it is important to be a good person and be good to others. This is the essence of most religions.” But they are older now, 10 and 11, and they are quite aware that lip service is different than actions. What exactly does our family do to practice our “religion?” Does being kind once in a while count? Is there a percentage of time spent being kind that qualifies officially as a “religion”?

At times, we have included the boys in our decision making about charitable donations, asking them to pool some of their own money in with ours. We volunteer for various organizations from time to time. But it is rather sporadic, often correlating with a story in the news, or some sort of organized volunteer day. January we gave money to several organizations to help the earthquake victims in Haiti, promising ourselves and our sons to decide that we would continue to donate throughout the year. It is now April and we have yet to make another contribution. This project is meant to serve as daily reminder that being a good person is not a part time or an every once in a while gig.

The second reason Easter reminds me why I am attempting this project is that today I was forced to think “What kind thing am I going to do today that is kind?” Being a holiday, most businesses are closed, families have plans, and this family unit is thrilled to be spending our entire day at home in the “non-practicing” category. I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be seeing anyone else today, never mind a stranger on whom to bestow kindness. This day I needed to think about what I could do that would fit the bill. My hope is that, by the end of this year, it will not be something I need to think about, it will be more a part of who I am.

So, I said to my husband, “Do you think picking trash would count as an act of kindness?” He assured me it did. So off I went, but not before asking the rest of my family to join me. They all politely declined. To their defense, we actually all had spent about an hour doing just this thing a few weeks ago. I was fairly certain that I could have persuaded them join me, but I opted not to put on the pressure. It seemed that would be like making the family go to formal religious services, which doesn’t seem to work as far as I can tell.

As I packed my trash bag with litter from the side of the road (which sadly took me less then 10 minutes to fill), I thought about the question to my spouse, does this act count? And I realized I’m going to need some rules….