Independence Day

Since the 4th of July is on a Thursday this year, and since I try and post on Thursdays, I thought I should post something along patriotic lines.  

But lacking any patriotic inspiration, I thought I'd tell you about a peculiar little Asian man who lives in my neighborhood.  (For all I know he may be blogging about the peculiar American woman who lives in his neighborhood!)  I don't know his name.  In fact, I don't know much about him at all, except that he likes to walk up and down our street (which is one block long) and that he likes to rest in the shade of the spruce tree in our front yard.

                        Actual reconnaissance photograph of my neighbor, taken from a window inside my family room. 😆

That feels like an intrusion to me.  "What's he doing sitting in our yard?" I have asked myself.  (In reality, he is sitting on the edge of the curb, which--last time I checked--is city property.)  On occasion, seated in that position he has even blocked one of us from parking our car in front of the house.  And always it seems that he has violated some unwritten law of proper social behavior by resting there in the shade of our tree--without our permission!

His walks most typically occur during the daytime, and as I am most often at work in the daytime, I don't see him regularly.  But recently when I do observe him resting under our tree, I've started to engage in a little self-examination.  What is it that bothers me about him sitting under our tree? Is he hurting anything or anyone? (No...)  Does he present a danger to us?  (No indication of that...)  Could there be a difference in our cultural norms, something that makes this either acceptable to him--or a non-issue altogether?  (Good chance of that...)  Is there perhaps something I could do that would be a step towards making this a non-issue for me?

And so, a couple of days ago, I decided to undertake a bold experiment: I decided to say "hello."   

He replied with a wave and a "hello" of his own.  

That's it.  I don't have any wonderful anecdotes to share describing how we are now regularly chatting or exchanging recipes or gardening tips (he would have to be a magician to help me with that.....!)  But I took a small step towards treating him like a person I could relate to or learn more about, instead of an irritant.  

Dallas and I like to watch the Netflix series "Madam Secretary," in which a highly intelligent woman who is a former CIA agent is appointed as Secretary of State.  In an episode we watched earlier this week, she was tasked with addressing the press.  At the signing ceremony for the adoption of a memorandum of understanding between two nations with a history of hatred and violence towards each other--which she had facilitated--a third, unrelated group had successfully launched a rocket into the Oval Office, injuring several people and killing an administrative assistant. 

In this fictional speech by this fictional character, she said something well worth remembering: "Find the beauty in our differences instead of the fear." I believe we exponentially increase the chances of that coming to pass when we take steps--even small ones--towards getting to know people who are different from us, in ways large and small.  

I guess this was a patriotic blog post after all.