The Pledge
posted at 1:59 pm
on Sep. 10, 2005
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I’ve decided to be a friendly neighbour.
This building I live in, The Palladio, is probably one of the least friendly buildings I’ve lived in. The only one that was less so was the corporate housing in Pasadena that Susie and I used mostly as a box to hold our cats and belongings as we geared up to move to France.
It’s not that the people here are mean, or bad or anything. They just don’t talk. They don’t talk when you pass them at the door or elevator, they don’t say hello when they come into the weight room, they don’t say hello in the parking garage.
So I’ve made it my mission to say Hello and start a genuine conversation with everyone I see here. What’s that expression about being the change you wish to see?
It’s not easy. Sometimes I feel grumpy, and there’s definitely not a lot fo time to try to strike up a connection. There’s also the fear taht someone will be curt or worse, which would probably be a bit of a downer.
So far, the pledge has been a success on every occasion. I’ve learned three new names, learned a bit more about the neighbourhood, learned that yes, everyone here HATES the construction, and that no one likes the power outages, either.
What? Oh, did I mention that we had no power for two days this month, and no hot water for about a week? But I digress.
One thing I didn’t learn is how the guy who parks next to us in the garage can manage to have a brand new snazzy car every three weeks. It used to be a BMW convertable, beige leather interior. But now it’s an Audi TT. I asked him when I saw him sitting in one recently.
He said, “I guess I just like cars a lot.”
I like computers a lot, but I still don’t get a new one every fornight.
