Stepping Up by Reaching Down

     While strolling in a conservation area, I noticed a soda can laying in the woods. It contained a residual amount of ginger ale. Ants crawled inside it, attracted to sugar.
     I contemplated carrying the can through the woods to my car, and from my car to a trash bin. What gave me pause were all those ants. They were miniscule. Some of them might get loose in my car, even if I crushed the can.

     This hiking area was brand new. Two Boy Scouts had blazed trails into it. They had pledged to maintain the pathways.
     Other people had visited the setting ahead of me. Some of them had left behind trash. I came across an empty pack of cigarettes, a coffee cup, and that can of soda.
     I gathered the debris, including the can, and brought it to my car. What motivated my action was the efforts of those Boy Scouts. They had taken an initiative, and without compensation done something for the betterment of my town.
     People step up when they know others are stepping up.