i normally try to live in harmony with others. and am often disturbed by how eager some are to choose otherwise.
tonight, as i was sitting here pulling together some research notes, the music of a neighbor across the street begins blaring. it is not unusual, the neighborhood is diverse, so there are many flavors in the air. usually loud, but this was a bit ‘over the top’.
my new neighbor to the right, after about five minutes, bolts out onto the upstairs walkway and proceeds to begin screaming at the people across the street. the usual things, i suppose… they, of course, obligingly scream back… tempers flare, inflammatory words are exchanged and the neighbors from across the street decide to come visit.
at this point, i call the police. the screaming is even louder than the music, which is already quite loud… and now it sounds as if there is going to be blood spilled.
it takes the police about fifteen minutes to arrive. the dispatcher keeps me on the line until they do. when they get here, things seem to calm a bit, and i hear both sets of folks asking who called. cringed a bit at it, for obvious reasons.
the fellow who is my neighbor was angry because his kids are trying to sleep and the loud music wasn’t conducive to it. the people across the street were angry because they were being yelled at… i wasn’t angry, just concerned for all of them and didn’t want to see it become more than a yelling match… which it was decidedly turning toward… as the police arrived just as the neighbor here was about to go down the stairs.
sigh. what is it about people that consideration just never seems to be the first thought? if i thought it would have helped anything, i’d have gone outside… but i’ve learned that lesson the hard way.
it’s calm now… i hope it stays that way.