Last night I went to water my plot in the community garden and to help water the many other plots of people who were away. Outside the fence, stood two men talking excitedly. I should have invited them in; I don’t know what I was a thinking.
One of the men introduced himself to me through the fence as a resident of the brand new apartment building across the street. I asked him how it was and he said ‘very nice’. I had been reluctant to talk with anyone from the building as it had been the subject of a bitter community battle for a few years. The building was thought to be totally inappropriate to the lovely old architecture of the area. It was huge and modern. It blocked out the light from many, many people’s back yards. The building had taken away our subway entrance and exit for a few years and made it into a myriad of long corridors and many more long narrow stairs to navigate. Then, there was the mess of the actual building itself and getting around cranes and walking under scaffolding. It was a long few years but I don’t know why I thought it was the new residents’ fault. They didn’t build the building. Still, to be adversarial stayed with me.
I got real grubby working on my patch (I call it “TARA” but it’s only 3 feet by 3 feet) and I’d forgotten to bring a cloth to clean up with and was on my way out to a street party.
I showed this nice young man who had just moved into the big new modern-fought-against-by- the-community building my hands covered with mud. And, he did something I wasn’t expecting. He offered to go get me a towel from his apartment!
“I just live across the street,” he said. Wow, how often does that happen? I answered that I’d be fine and could wash off with the garden hose which I did. But, I remembered the friendly young man and his kind offer this morning.
Narrow-mindedness, mine and anyone else’s, closes so many doors, cuts off so many opportunities.
Mary Pat Kane
July 11, 2011
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