02/22/2026
Please help solve a debate between my wife and I 🙏🏽
We enjoyed a beautiful wedding, as guests, a beautiful daughter of our friends got married 🙌🏽
We sat down and enjoyed a great meal!
I began to clean up our dining area for my wife and myself by stacking plates and organizing our mess.
She elbows me, as per usual, and says “stop, it’s embarrassing.”
I don’t do it consciously, it’s like a programming that makes my brain feel peace when our area is clean.
Yes, there is a secondary gain that thinks I’m helping the staff who already have a lot on their plate… pun intended 😝
We AGREE to disagree 🤝
Then, later during the dance, I see a friend of mine cleaning up his area and I elbow my wife and stay, “see I do have a brother in this world!”
So of course, I had to grab Dan and let him know that we are brothers from another mother because of our post dining behavior.
Interestingly, he shared similar ideas about clearing his mind and feeling peace ✌🏽
No, I’m not cleaning up the table for everyone
No, I don’t do it for brownie points.
No, I don’t do it for attention.
Yes, I literally do it so my mind can relax, the secondary benefit is that I feel like I’m helping staff. Finally, I grew up in the restaurant Biz so it’s a subconscious software program that I haven’t felt like updating.
So we are tied, my vote is “YES” this is both necessary, and a prosocial etiquette.
My wife believes “NO,” it is unnecessary and perhaps even embarrassing.
So please vote, YES to clean, or NO not to clean when you’re finished dining at a public restaurant? 🤷🏽♂️ 
Never ever forget:
“There’s ✌🏽TiMES TO BE GREAT, when you feel like it when you don’t.”®️
Raul Sanchez
Renewing The Mind Podcast
