Throw Away Things

When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. But Esther had kept secret her family background and nationality just as Mordecai had told her to do, for she continued to follow Mordecai’s instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up. During the time Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. But Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai. And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the two officials were hanged on a gallows. All this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king. (Esther 2:19-23) 

            At some point after the whole beauty pageant nonsense ended, Mordecai over-heard a couple disgruntled employees of the king plotting the king’s assassination. He got word to Esther, who got word to Xerxes that a guy named Moredcai found out about the assassination plot. Xerxes, in a moment of rationality that would seem to be uncharacteristic (perhaps he was sober) had the accusation investigated. When it was found to be true, he had the would-be assassins hung by the neck until dead. Of course, all of his was recorded for posterity and future reference, and promptly forgotten.
            I’m not going to claim Mordecai didn’t have an ulterior motive for protecting Xerxes. Keeping him alive meant that Esther wasn’t handed off to some other guy. Once it was done, however, everyone apparently forgot about it. 
            How much of what we do is “throw away” stuff? I’m not asking about the stuff we do that has no value (or worse.) I’m talking about the stuff we do because we should, or because it’s in our nature to do it, and once we do it, it’s forgotten. These things could be as little as opening a door for someone or picking up litter. Or, these things could be as big as saving a life of some Lord High Muckety-Muck.
            Perhaps because most of my life seems to have been behind-the-scenes, I like to think that “throw-away” stuff may actually be important stuff. Mrs. Obama once said something about a time when someone asked her to get something off a shelf in a grocery store for them. She felt that was a racist, demeaning request. What if getting that item down off the shelf was the single greatest thing she ever did? It certainly would have been a “throw away” item, if she hadn’t chosen to use it politically. 
           What if those things that you do because they’re the things you do, the things you don’t bother writing in your journal or on social media – what if those are the important things? There are a couple pseudo-movements out there: some people commit random acts of kindness. Others pay it forward. I’d like to see us step beyond those, to be people whose acts of kindness as done unconsciously, to do good when we can not because someone has done good to us, or because we hope someone will do good to us, but simply because that’s who we are and that’s what we do. Once it’s done, it’s done.