I was recently visiting the in-laws around Christmas, and the conversation took an unexpected turn.  One person was telling a story they heard on the local news about a couple who were burning trash outside their house but went inside, leaving the fire unattended, and their house caught on fire.  That’s a tragic story, but they learned some “common sense” the hard way.  Anyway, there’s no need to rant on that, since the moral of the story is quite obvious.

After that part of the story, an older country woman said, somewhat agitatedly, “Why were they burning trash outside?”  That piqued my curiosity, as I was eager to hear some further explanation of that statement.  I mean, where else would you burn trash?  (Before anyone rushes to the comments to lecture on why people shouldn’t burn trash, I agree, but some people don’t have trash pickup and live in areas where burning stuff is still allowed.)

I looked around, wondering who would answer her question.  I didn’t know what to say.  There was a short pause (which is rare in those parts), and then the conversation went to a completely different topic.  That was disappointing.  Did everyone else just ignore her?  I wanted to ask about it, but given the general atmosphere at the in-laws at the time, I didn’t want to stir anything up, so I left it alone.  Nonetheless, someone should’ve at least jokingly asked her where she thinks you should burn trash.  It was a missed opportunity.