Neighbors

We live out in the middle of nowhere. A place often in this area referred to as bum fuck egypt. It is a dead end road and we live a mile and a quarter from the intersection that will take you back to civilization. We are not the last house on the road, there are two another half mile past us. Both are currently empty. The one fartherest down was bought by a Lebanese family from Peoria who use it for hunting and a place to let their kids ride a four wheelers. John, the father, is a real character and I am sure he doesn't know any strangers. Over the course of the past couple of years we have become friends with them and visit back and forth when they are here or we go to Peoria. You never know how people are going to be and the first time we got invited down to have a meal we didn't take any beer. John mentioned something about it and said it was okay they were Christians. We let him know that not all Christians approved of alcohol consumption and we were trying to be polite. I have done some work helping John modernize the house, mowed the yard for him and given him a few loads of firewood. In the process I have stood back and watched how he and his family are treated from time to time. You meet someone who is clearly middle eastern based on appearance and accent and some folks assume Islamic. He has to put up with some nonsense that I don't because he is foreign and I think people just want to mess with him for that reason. He seems to just ignore it and go about his business. It is an attitude and behavior I would not have if I was in his position.
It makes me wonder about the "golden rule". Shouldn't we treat others in the manner in which we would want to be treated? What happened to good manners and civility? It seems like we have watched too much reality TV (which frankly does not appear real to me at all) and focused on the way to get things done is yell and fight. Being loud doesn't equal being right. A lie told loud and often is still a lie. Call me old fashioned and crazy. Target has two sets on entrance doors at the Galesburg store. One set opens automatically and the other set (oh my god) you have to reach out and use your arm to open. When we go to Target we go in that door. One reason is that I am not a cripple (yet). The second reason is that I want to hold the door open for my wife. It is not to make her feel subserviant it is to show my love and respect for her extends even to something that minor. I don't yell at people I think have done me wrong or curse at them. They don't make me angry. Why should they? When I give in to anger I have let them control me. They have made me do something and generally what they wanted was to make me angry. In my mind I do something far worse to them. I treat them with kindness. It is not what they expect and generally they do not know what to do with a kind word or deed. It goes back to doing unto others what you would want from them. One of the first times neighbor John was down he commented that we were good neighbors. My response was that you cannot expect to have good neighbors unless you are a good neighbor.

In closing I will add that I am not a religious person in the traditional sense but the following made sense to me and it was something I had wondered about. "Sometimes I would like to ask God why he allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it. But I'm afraid He would ask me the same question."