I had a good friend who had one set of rules for his room mates,
which were the three Cs; Cleanliness, Courtesy-ness and
Considerateness. These seem like a good philosophy to have when one has
to share space with others in modern society. This post of course is
not for those that intend to live alone and not interact with others or
only intend to interact with others who tolerate their every activity.
This post is for those that choose to live amongst other people
especially in a populated area where many share public spaces.
There
are too many that seem to be living in a vacuum, especially here in the
Greater Los Angeles Area. This attitude is surprising to me because I
would assume that when one shares an area with 18 million others that
people would be more accommodating but apparently the majority seem to
more concerned with ignoring the others around them. Or at the very
least many seem to have a complete lack of concern over how their
actions effect others. There's much evidence of this on the highways
which I'll be sure to expound upon in later posts.
Specifically,
today I encountered two examples. The first is a neighbor who, on
Sunday morning, has her lawn sprinklers come on at 8 AM. These
sprinklers spray across each other, over the sidewalk and onto cars
parked along the street. I've observed people on their morning walk
having to go out into the street to avoid getting soaked including a
mother with a toddler in a stroller. Perhaps this neighbor is unaware
of when her sprinklers come on, or she doesn't know how to adjust them.
Whatever the reason may be, it seems to me that one should have
awareness of how their possessions are affecting others. For instance
one wouldn't start mowing the lawn at 6:30 AM even though the sun has
risen, I think many know that such an action would be considered rude.
So, why let other actions have an equally as rude of an effect.
The
other example is one I'm sure many others have come across too and that
is people who let their dogs take a dump without picking it up.
Someone then steps in this and then tracks dog shit into their car and
apartment. This is just wrong and rude.
Sometimes I
wonder if these actions are just mindlessness or are people just being
inconsiderate towards others because someone was inconsiderate towards
them.
So what is the best way forward, should I become
the one who polices everyone's actions? Or send the neighbor a
letter? Should we establish laws or some other method of
repercussions? One thing I am working on is being more tolerant. I try
to let things wash over me; but must I always be the one who gives way
to everyone else when so many seem to just take and take and take
whatever others will give them. Is it possible to become the kind of
person that laughs at getting dog shit stuck in their sneaker? Although
I am working on being more zen about things, since I'm not there yet,
hopefully bitching about inconsiderateness within the blogosphere will
be enough to satiate my needs, otherwise I might snap and give one these
people a verbal thrashing.