Articles

Inspired by a Trash Truck
 by Joanne Ugolini, Psy.D.

This morning on my way to work I was inspired by a trash truck. I don’t normally look to trash trucks as a source of inspiration, but there I was, struck by the message of wisdom distinctly scrawled in graffiti on the back panel. I knew where the truck was barreling forward to, at over 60 mph up the superhighway. The county dump was not far from our location.

What a great message, I thought, so positive. Usually graffiti are concrete in nature, begging the reader, for example, to, “Wash me.” Or they are negative in content, with four-letter word commands that I wouldn’t print in a newsletter. In contrast, this message I would expect to find on a church’s curb side display, or on an ornate bumper sticker. But there it was, scrawled on a trash truck: “Learn, Love, Laugh.”

The message was an incredibly healthy instruction. Isn’t learning, loving, and laughing the essence of life? And, actually, isn’t that what we hope to do in therapy? Learn about ourselves, learn to love ourselves, and loving ourselves, be able to laugh? Somehow in the process we simultaneously better understand others, and learn to love and laugh with them as well. It’s about getting perspective, within the framework that God’s grace has provided.

Usually I distance myself as much as possible from the trash trucks that come along side me on the road. Not only do they look big and imposing, (who knows when their last brake job occurred), but they stink. With this trash truck, I found myself trying to get closer, to make sure I was getting the message right. Therapy can be like that too. When we start getting close to our personal trash we want to get away from it, distance ourselves. Our pain and failures look imposing, dangerous, filthy. They can just stink. Better to get away from them. Some people can’t tolerate getting so close to their personal trash, and leave the therapy process abruptly. But the trash truck’s function is specifically to get rid of the trash: find it, collect it, and dump it. The process might not feel safe or appear attractive, and can just stink at times, but it is essential to getting things cleaned up. Getting close to the trash is basic to freeing us up to be able to learn, love and laugh.

When we do decide to get close to that trash and take it for dumping, we are not alone. Our Lord has been there before us and is willing to go with us now as well.

So when things don’t look so great to me, when I am feeling stricken, smitten and afflicted, remind me that I might need to get closer to my trash to really get the message right.

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him…surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:3-4)
           
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