The Rules

When you go to kindergarten, you are already well on your way – or should be anyhow – to learning the ground rules for dealing with others in everyday life. While the circumstances change, most of these rules stay the same in your neighborhood, at school, or in the workplace.

Don’t mess with other people’s stuff. Share. Take turns. All these things are pretty basic for most of us. Most of us.

So, for those of you who didn’t get that benefit at age 5 (ie. some of my neighbors), or maybe just forgot, here’s a refresher.

1. If you mess it up, clean it up. After the mother and I were outside until dark Sunday clearing debris from my weed-eating mess, Lawnmower man threw grass all over the sidewalk and into our driveway. I cleaned up another half a bag of stuff before taking my own mess from Sunday to the dump. Grrrr.
2. Be kind to others. Several people watched as the mailman fell, skinned himself up, and then went on down the street. Only the mother asked if he was O.K. She got him a damp rag and a Band-Aid. Double grrrr.
3. Don’t dump your responsibilities. Animals are creatures of God, too. (Check your Bible – we were given “dominion” over them. With power, comes responsibility.) It’s probably one of the latest litter from the cats that live down the alley, that their alleged owners do not care for. They freely roam the neighborhood, jumping on cars, killing wildlife and terrorizing other people’s pets. A kitten had been roaming the neighborhood since at least Friday, screaming its little guts out. Poor little thing turned out to be VERY little indeed –and difficult to catch. (But that’s a story for another post.) TRIPLE grrrr.

These are just a few, but they’re front and center because I’ve had to deal with them in the past 24 hours. Now departing soapbox…