May 18, 2015 – St. Paul, Minnesota

“I wish you’d park in front of your own %&$#ing house…”

…the neighbor across the street says to me earlier in the year. We have to park on the street due to limited alley space, and it never occurred to me that it mattered what side I parked on. Is it that big of a deal to walk another three steps to your house?

I turn around and look at the guy. “Really? It’s cool man, I can move it.” I move my car to the other side of the street and dwell on this encounter throughout the day. Maybe even a few days. I tell Mari about it, to which she seems a bit surprised. The moment passes, but the feelings remain.

I avoid any sort of contact with this person from here on out. When Syr and I play outside, we don’t wave at them. They don’t wave at us. The whole thing is a bit off-putting.

Until a few days ago.

I come home after work and park on “my” side of the street, which I always do now just to appease the guy. Funny, how territorial humans are. The neighbor approaches me, and I’m not sure what to think.

Then he hits me with it. “Hey man…I’ve been meaning to talk to you for awhile about what happened. I was going through a rough time…my father had just died from cancer and you just caught me at the worst time.”

My heart sinks.

I immediately apologize to the guy for what happened to his father and ask him not to worry about the incident. He thanks me in return for accepting his apology and we shake hands. Now I feel bad for being mad at the guy for so long. I wonder how he feels, getting that off of his chest.

We need to realize that sometimes people might just be going through difficult times in their personal lives. Even though they may direct their anger at us, it may just be that they are failing to properly deal with an emotion, a thought, or an event. This does not make them bad people.

It makes them human.

“To err is human; to forgive, divine.” – Alexander Pope