My hope is that our neighbors are nature worshippers. My hope is that they believe that when they die (and they are old) they will be one with nature. Obviously that is not what I believe, but it would explain their behavior. It would explain to me why, after they moved in, they started yelling at the neighborhood boys when the basketball accidently rolled on their lawn.
It would explain to my son, who comes in the house crying, why they threaten to call the police for stepping in their yard.
The thing is, Todd and I have been out there. The boys are not running amuck in their yard. They are just playing basketball in the street, with a hoop that is 100% in our yard.
The husband came to the door the other day just furious that the ball rolls in their yard on occasion. Going out of our way to try and be neighborly we offered to consider moving the hoop to the other side of our house.
In contrast, we went to the neighbors on the other side, and they were amazing. We thought we'd ask what they thought about us moving the hoop. They said yes, yes, yes please feel free to put the hoop on this side of your house!
After we moved the hoop, we saw the mean old couple walking down the street. Not only did they not say, "thank you for moving the hoop", they said nothing. The next day a sign went up in their yard, near our house, that says NO TRESPASSING!
We are not going away, the neighborhood boys are not getting smaller, the weather is starting to get nicer and the days longer, so I really need to spend some time in prayer over my attitude. Obviously the cookies we delivered at Christmas did no good. Maybe I'll deliver a brochure for a 55 and older community. I don't expect them to be any happier, but at least there would be no basketball hoops.
