Because of the out pour of concern via texts and emails that I caused by my previous post, I think I should clarify where my frustrations were coming from yesterday. When I moved into my neighborhood last July, one of my nearby neighbors was putting up a fence. It's a lovely fence...lovely indeed, but there's only one problem. They violated the community covenants. Well, fast forward to a couple weeks ago when I was asked to serve on the community's board. At first I was leery about committing to something I knew NOTHING about. Heck, I've only been a homeowner for six months, what did I have to bring to the table for this community?! Well, after talking to some neighbors, I realized the concerns and the need for some "fresh blood" on the community board.
Last night was our first board meeting. After a grueling day at work and in my personal life, the LAST thing I wanted to do was so sit for three hours with complete strangers and talk about the landscaping at the entrance of our housing addition, but I went anyhow, as I had made the commitment. The meeting quickly turned ugly and went to the "XYZ Lawsuit" (the fence ordeal). The people of the board turned into ugly villains. They bad-mouthed these neighbors up one side and down the other. As a very close friend of these "fence-builders" I took personal offense to the ugly words that were spoken. I sat there, dumbfounded, at the mannerisms of these "adults" and wished, more than anything, that I was in my safe cozy home, far far away from this negativity as possible.
At home last night, after hearing these ridiculous "concerns" from my neighbors, I got to thinking...is this REALLY what being a part of a neighborhood is all about? What happened to neighborly love? What happened to looking out for our neighbors? It made me sad to think of the petty things people stress out about. What business was it of these people to decide how high someone else's fence should be? Although I could understand SOME of the concerns these people had, for the most part the accusations and concerns were so out of left field that I couldn't even keep up (much like I'm sure you feel reading this blog! LOL!).
Basically, the board meeting made me realize something: We get SO wrapped up in petty things. We worry about OTHER people's "stuff" so much that we fail to look at the things that REALLY matter in life. The height of a fence does NOT feed my children. The brick layout of the community's new sign does NOT keep my family safe and warm at night. The number of signatures on a petition to amend covenants does NOT determine my self-worth. It seems to me we should spend less time focusing on the material things in our communities and focus more on the people who reside within the community parameters.
***Okay people, you can now call off the suicide watch you all had out on me!***
1 comment:
There was a story here once about a couple whose grass got really tall and weedy. Instead of checking on the family the neighbors called the city and the people got a citation and some other trouble. Turns out the man of the house was very sick and the woman was working 2 jobs and taking care of him, thus no one had time to take care of the grass. If the neighbors had spent the time helping the family and not tattling, it would have had a much happier ending.
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