Considerateness

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.