A Small Self-Correction

I don’t owe any particular person an apology, but I do need to make a small self-correction. This has to do with something I often carp about: people leaving their empty shopping carts near where they parked their cars rather than pushing them back to the store or to the nearest cart return corral.

After finishing our shopping at a local grocery store, Desiree and I pushed our cart out the front door and headed for the car. Before long, we fell in behind a man who was slowly making his way along the sidewalk with his cart. His slow pace and obvious, halting gait revealed legitimate issues with walking. As providence would have it, he led us all the way to our car, which was parked only two spots away from his.

While we loaded our groceries into the car, the man did the same. After finishing, he pushed his cart against the wall of the store and slowly wobbled back to his car, struggling to stay upright the whole time. Watching him, I imagined how difficult it would be for him to make his way all the way from the cart return to his car. With that in mind, I coupled his cart with mine and returned both of them. In the future, I’ll try to remember that not every cart has been abandoned thoughtlessly.

—Mitchell Hegman