On October 30, 2020, I told the story of how I rescued a fallen trash can on the corner of Smith and Nelson Streets in Gowanus. I documented the trash can rescue because, as I put it then:
Heroism is not about the deed itself, it is about telling people that you are responsible for a heroic deed.
Nicholas A. Ferrell
I took a walk down memory lane, heretofore that same stretch of Smith Street, on October 1, 2024, although I may have started a bit below Nelson. While walking, I found myself thinking about that time I took a moment to be a hero and heroically make New York City a better place. Naturally, I wondered whether another opportunity for heroism, perhaps a public trash receptacle crying out for a hero, would present itself. Alas, or fortunately (depending on your perspective), all the trash cans were standing.
Although I was not presented with the opportunity to repeat my heroism, the quietude of this mostly-empty stretch of Smith Street in the evening gave me the opportunity to ponder why the night was not in need of a hero. Then I saw something which caused me to take another trash can photo.
Here, you see the standing trash can – right? But look to its left and right. That is my shadow taking a photograph of the trash can. I have the trash can bracketed on both sides. It occurred to me that perhaps the trash cans are all standing because of my heroic act of heroism back in 2020. It was because I stood for the trash cans that the trash cans gained the strength to stand on their own.
Or so I tell myself.