I never thought I would end up living in a place surrounded by the worst kinds of neighbors one can imagine: noisy, nosy, dirty, irresponsible, agressive, vulgar, self-indulgent, self-righteous, overall selfish, and cynical.
No matter what side of the block I look, I am surrounded by people that make it infinitely more difficult to survive in a country like ours, so in need of courage, solidarity, honesty, and responsibility.
Yesterday was supposed to be a special day, but there was not much we could do in terms of making plans to go out or anything. Neither were we in a possition of preparing anything special at home. We settle for watching some series while eating some chocolate and cookies at night. So, I decided to vent some energy taking care of this pending business.
For months now this tree, one of three that give us nightmares, has been growing wildly from one of the next-door neighbor's houses. The house is abandoned since the owner died, but his sons and other relatives have made some visits to empty it from whatever it had inside. We had asked them several times to please cut the trees since they were causing several problems (leaves falling into our patio, roots breaking walls, and vines invading rooms). Like the typical politicians we so much complain about, they made promises, but never delivered. So, I just jumped over the wall that separates the two houses and drastically pruned the tree myself. It should be cut down entirely, but I do not have the right tools.
The vines invaded very agressively this time. Of course, it did not help that the owners of the house took forever to do anything about it.
I found a mini jungle on the other side. Some of the other neighbors had already complained about snakes and centepedes. Luckily, I did not find any.
The vines had extended over three different walls, including ours, invading different rooms in three different houses.
The "good" thing about cuting this one this time is that most of the folliage was vines. By cuting the main branches the whole bunch fell off.
It does not make me happy to leave a tree like this, but given the circumstances, I had no choice.
Societies work better when every individual does what s/he has to do to make their surroundings better. When they understand that their freedom ends where their neighbors' begin, they become better citizens. When they understand that even the hardest of works can be made easy when everyone involved contributes their share, then things start to work better and people start aiming at higher goals becasue they can actually see that anything can be done.
We have a long way to go in this department, here in Venezuela. That's why a tiny minority still manages to control an overwhelming majority, which is too concerned thinking about their particular interests and missing the whole picture. Did any of the neighbors, especially the ones who came to my place to complain about the vines notice that they are gone? say anything? Of course not. But I still had to do what I had to do regarless.
I have two more trees to prune, but they'll have to wait for my right arm to recover its full strength. Maybe some concerned red environmentalist will manage to pull the "right" strings to prevent me from commiting this eco-crime (for that kind fo crap they can be very diligent and efficient). I guess my right arm will be thankful.
Thanks for stopping by
