November 20, 2007
No Deposit, No Return
In my recollection of the ‘old days’, soda pop came in redeemable bottles. Kids could get five cents for every empty bottle they returned to the local grocery store. People driving cars were always throwing empty bottles out the window and I could pick them up on the side of the road, cash them in and buy penny candy. It was a great way to make spending money. Some bottles not acceptable for returning to a bottler were stamped, “No Deposit, No Return”. Who would have thought that an empty soda bottle could teach a child about deposits, returning and redeeming. The Lord left the Spirit as a deposit. Without the Spirit…no deposit, no return.
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Gail;
-----I remember those bottles, too. They were built sturdy, to last. And you could tell the ones that had been around the block a few times. They were coated with scratches till their glassy sheen was a dull roughness, and they even might have a chip or two here or there. They had character; they were interesting, almost like an old story. I used to search my bottles for all the little nicks and chips while drinking my soda and talking to my friends. I would wonder what might make some of the scratched patterns, and imagine them jangling against each other on the trucks and through the washers, on their way to serve someone else after I had emptied it. Though I knew their lives were limited by their accumulated damage, they still had an air of permanence and gave me a sense of attachment to others by the thought of the enjoyment they had previously served, and would serve again.
-----But the next generation of none-returnable bottles gave character away for convenience. Each was bottled new with its shiny little sides all smooth and perfect. Every one was just like the other, and none of them had anything below their surface, no depth, no character, no marks of having been around. They had a different kind of dullness, a boring kind. And you knew that after you drank from one, it was going straight to the dump, and the next one you drank from would be just like it. These things were cheap, flimsy, and good only for the moment. And that‘s all they were made for. The only thing I could imagine when I pondered one of those containers was another throw away. So useless and devoid of character were they that they soon became plastic and almost weightless.
-----It all so much reminds me of what the liberals do to our society, and what the contemporaries do to our churches.
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