Snow Clearing as a Social Experiment

There's something invigorating about going to clear the snow after the first big snowfall of the year. Though as I was doing it, I noticed that there are 3 kind of ways to clear your sidewalk:

1) You go out with the snowblower and, while you have it out, you clear as much as you can. That was much of our neighborhood this morning. First Deb and Dave cleared our main walk. Then Patrick went out with the snowblower and did a little more, but a narrow path down the walk of the new-built home on the other side of Deb, then cleared out the block's OG's walk fully. He then went on to do similar things at the Hague and Winter Street houses. That's kind of our theory; help out people as much as you can. It was kind of fun to see all the neighbors in the snow, on a beautiful sunny morning.

2) You get a service. Also a reasonable move (and it turns out we did not to clear John and Linda's because they had hired a service this year, the same one a couple of other neighbors use). Which is cool and all, though today that service did not show until after 10. Obviously, most multi-units go for this option. But hey, it they did a great job.

3) Be like a couple of our neighbors (the new-built homes and the ultra-conservatives across the street) who just kind of say "F*ck it" and leave the snow there waiting for ... well, spring maybe?

Which, I guess, is a paradigm for all human interaction, but especially with your neighbors. You can all collaborate, you can delegate your task but make sure it gets done, or you can just opt out of humanity and hope someone else eventually takes care of it.

I know which of those choices I respect the most.