|
Letters From North America |
||||
|
There was a movie out a couple of years ago, which had a scene in it that I recall really vividly. The leading guy had lost a child. He and his wife and remaining son were trying to cope with the recent tragedy. The story was about the grief being shared by all members of the family. The father was totally consumed by his sorrow, to the detriment of his relationship with his surviving son and wife. At one point in the movie the little boy looks up at his father and says, "Why do you have to make everything so hard?" I have kept that idea in my mind and have attempted to go out of my way not to make things hard for others, but easier, when and where I can. Life is tough for all of us, without having to go out of our way to make it more difficult. When we lived in the country some years ago, our house sat on the river and people could float on tubes or whatever past our place in the summertime. Now, in Texas, the landowner owns the land to the middle of a non-navigable river. So, to be technical, we owned the part of the river that the people floated upon. We´ve seen some folks put fences across the river, or in some cases shoot over the heads of children floating on tubes past their property. We always allowed them to have free access to our place. If they wanted to eat at our picnic tables, so what? I can say without reservation that the thanks and words of appreciation we received more than made up for the small amounts of trash that were left behind from time to time by someone who was careless. When we moved back to the city, we used to hire an ice company to come out each year and snow our front yard. It would end up being a layer of snow about 3-4 inches thick and was the closest thing most city kids in our part of the world had ever seen that looked and felt like the real stuff. Generally, we´d have someone fixing hot dogs for kids and their parents who dropped over for the party. I can´t think of a year that we didn´t have maybe 15-25 people who would see what was going on, stop and stick their kids in the stuff and maybe even end up in the line for a hot dog or two. Big deal. So what? We always had plenty and if it made a good memory for some kid, then it was worth it. We´ve had perfect strangers come up to our house and show us pictures of their kids romping in the snow for the first time in their lives. Those memories are worth much, much more to us than the cost of a hot dog or two. Now the point of all of this is to describe a situation that happened to us last week. We had a friend of ours and her two young daughters from Georgia visiting for a week or so. After Easter morning church service, we´re headed home for lunch. We pass a house in our neighborhood that has a large patch of bluebonnets growing along the side by the road. I stop and suggest that the girls get out and we´d take a few pictures of them dressed in their Easter clothes with the bluebonnets. These folks are from Georgia and had never seen any flowers like this. Well, don´t you know that we just get the girls and their mother in position for the photograph, when the lady that apparently lives in the house comes out, and announces in an angry voice that "You are on private property." I knew that of course, but in the strictest sense of the word, we were actually on the easement, not her yard, but then again it was her easement. Anyway, I explain that these people were from Georgia and had never seen bluebonnets before, but it didn´t make any difference. This woman goes on and on about how these girls are smashing the flowers by sitting in them. Of course, it´s ok for the dogs, deer, possums, raccoons, rabbits, foxes, cats and squirrels to walk among them, because well, they´re just dumb animals. But, two children? Nope , musn´t hurt the flowers. We pile back into the car and leave. Of course the girls cried, because they thought they had done something wrong. I felt bad because I had thought it was a good idea. I´m sure the mother probably has a lesser opinion of the residents of Texas as a result of this incident, but the flowers survived, and that´s what´s important. At least to the owner of the property. I don´t know about you, but I kind of like making it easier, not harder. I also like to make a good memory, especially for little kids, instead of a bad one, if I can do so. Isn´t that what we should all be doing if and when we have the opportunity? |
||||
|
For questions or comments, please contact me at www.pearyperry.compperry@austin.rr.com Designed and Hosted by The Home Page Factory |
||||
