On three occasions this year I've arrived early enough at the basketball courts to do a quick clean-up before my guys arrive for training. Each time the area wasn't exactly a mess - otherwise I'd have got the players to clean-up for me - but there were two or three empty cans up against the perimeter and at least one empty plastic bottle lying around. And each time I've got to wondering how exactly these were left behind. Was it some vague act of pointless malice, from someone who presumably had used the court but thought it best to show they didn't care about the maintenance thereof? Or was it just complete forgetfulness from someone caught up in other more important personal matters when leaving the place who'd neglected to take care of all their 'stuff'? Or was it it somewhere between these extremes?
Whatever it was I can't really wrap my head around the behaviour involved.
And here's the personal conundrum. As far as I can remember I didn't do anything like this as a kid. But I know for certain I was no angel. I can recall in embarrassing detail two anti-social acts I was involved in which were a good deal worse than just leaving a couple of cans around. So there's the possibility I'm ignoring or suppressing what I know to be true of the behaviour of idiotic teenagers (like me) in the interests of building a kind of communitarian mythology.
This is disconcerting. Maybe the sense of guilt lies behind my compulsion to tidy public spaces?
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