Sunday, June 03, 2007
prime example
I like to think simplistically. Yep. I am a philistine.
But sometimes getting insight into a person's character can come down to one act.
A prime example of that is my neighbor. When I first moved into my neighborhood, I tried to make friends with my neighbors. See this was an existing older neighborhood and a builder bought four vacant lots and built four houses. We were the first to move in. On one side of us there is an existing house and on the other side is the psycho dyko.
So let me focus on the existing house and the two new houses across the street. Us four families started out by doing a good amount of socializing. I am one of those people who wants everyone to like me even if I don't like them. I know. Whatever.
Anyhoo fast forward many years of being dissed and my kids not being treated as well as the other kids from these heterosexual families.
The final straw was when we had a party after the second parent adoption went through for the kids. These people were so freaked by our friends that included two white men with two adopted dark-skinned children. They were rude and ignorant and I finally realized ... hey we don't have to be friends. We can just be neighbors. It is has been much, much more pleasant and my angst is pretty much gone.
Okay, okay. Here is the point. My neighbor across the street who also happened to be Eli's science teacher this year got a truckload of mulch dumped in his driveway the other day. They have been working at it in a sysyphean attempt to get rid of it so they can park their cars in the driveway.
They don't need all of it. They have so much they are mulching the trees on the grounds of the office building next door. Do they ask any neighbors if they would like some? Welp, they certainly didn't ask me and I didn't see any of their best buds out there helping themselves.
As I watch from the window right beyond my computer screen, I get an aha moment. These people truly are different than me and mine in ways much more fundamental than sexuality. I am generous. I like to think I think about how I can help other people or share what I have.
But some people are in their own little world. They don't think beyond the task or the moment.
I am the ultimate cancer. I remember everything ever done to me, good or bad. But I still try and be a good neighbor whenever I can. I can be counted on. I realize not everyone can. Weird.
And so it goes.
But sometimes getting insight into a person's character can come down to one act.
A prime example of that is my neighbor. When I first moved into my neighborhood, I tried to make friends with my neighbors. See this was an existing older neighborhood and a builder bought four vacant lots and built four houses. We were the first to move in. On one side of us there is an existing house and on the other side is the psycho dyko.
So let me focus on the existing house and the two new houses across the street. Us four families started out by doing a good amount of socializing. I am one of those people who wants everyone to like me even if I don't like them. I know. Whatever.
Anyhoo fast forward many years of being dissed and my kids not being treated as well as the other kids from these heterosexual families.
The final straw was when we had a party after the second parent adoption went through for the kids. These people were so freaked by our friends that included two white men with two adopted dark-skinned children. They were rude and ignorant and I finally realized ... hey we don't have to be friends. We can just be neighbors. It is has been much, much more pleasant and my angst is pretty much gone.
Okay, okay. Here is the point. My neighbor across the street who also happened to be Eli's science teacher this year got a truckload of mulch dumped in his driveway the other day. They have been working at it in a sysyphean attempt to get rid of it so they can park their cars in the driveway.
They don't need all of it. They have so much they are mulching the trees on the grounds of the office building next door. Do they ask any neighbors if they would like some? Welp, they certainly didn't ask me and I didn't see any of their best buds out there helping themselves.
As I watch from the window right beyond my computer screen, I get an aha moment. These people truly are different than me and mine in ways much more fundamental than sexuality. I am generous. I like to think I think about how I can help other people or share what I have.
But some people are in their own little world. They don't think beyond the task or the moment.
I am the ultimate cancer. I remember everything ever done to me, good or bad. But I still try and be a good neighbor whenever I can. I can be counted on. I realize not everyone can. Weird.
And so it goes.
