We moved here about two years ago. Many of our neighbors are second or third generation here, others are more recent, but we are definitely the new kids on the block. You remember what it is like to be the new kid. When I am going into new situations I often begin with fantasies of hopeful promise that this will be a new haven….I paint pictures in my mind of a place where I’ll feel like I belong, they’ll feel like they (and I) belong, we will all get along…Then I start to meet people….
So there we were on our new property, which has the outstanding characteristic of a creek running through it. Something else that is unusual about our new place is that there is a road both in front and in back of us. The house came with a fence in front but not in back where the creek and the second road are. The house has a wall of windows that exposes most of the house to the street. As we err on the modest, private side, we put a fence up. But not for long. The neighbors, these people who were supposed to be my new best friends, were, it turns out very entitled, nincompoops. They protested our fence! They said it blocked “their” view of the creek (and of our back yard, living room, dining room and kitchen might I add). The city even came out to inspect and after seeing how exposed our house was to the street Okayed the fence. But the neighbors, who were obviously not my new best friends, kept pestering and complaining. We were forced to take our fence down. Now everyone who walks and drives by can see what I am eating for breakfast, oh joy!
I was so mad I could spit.
And I stayed mad for a long time! I dreamt mad things about my neighbors. I told everyone I know how mad I was about it. I could not stop thinking about it! I felt exposed and vulnerable. I felt like my family and I had no privacy and that everyone in our neighborhood might be looking into our yard and house all the time.
Right around Halloween time, as this whole conflict (and my anger) was at its climax, I had visions of hanging a Halloween witch in the tree, by the neck, with a sign that said, “It was the fence that led me to this.” I know that is just crazy, but that is how […]