Meeting The Faceless

Since we've had a baby, I've become very aware of the next-door-neighbor-through-the-wall.

Since he's in the next building over, we don't see him in our stairwell and say hi.

We don't know his name or whether he has a significant other.

We just know that there's a good chance that our crying baby bothers him and that his loud music definitely bothers us.

When someone is faceless it's easy to reject them. To sigh in frustration, make snarky comments about their music taste or laughter, and yet be uncomfortably conscious that we might be annoying them too. To grumble about the parties they throw and yet never actually get to know what sort of person they are.

On Saturday I met our neighbor.





We were both hanging out our laundry, and while I could have hidden behind the solid balcony dividers, I took a risk.

"Hallo.... I hope our baby's crying hasn't bothered you too much," I offered, casually pinning jeans on my clothesline.

"Oh, not at all!"

"Ah, good."

Silence.

"You know," he added brightly, peering around the divider, "the thing is, an atom bomb could go off and I wouldn't wake up!"

I laughed, a little surprised.

"How old is your baby, anyway?"

I opened my balcony door, reached in, and retrieved an excited Pippin. Then we walked over to the divider, and carried on a conversation with the no longer faceless neighbor for the next five or so minutes. He admired my baby and my balcony plants ("It's like you have an herb temple!") and I admired the potatoes he was growing on a whim (as he hoisted the entire heavy planter up to show us). And then we got off into discussing what could be grown on our tiny balconies and whether it was more practical to set up sun chairs or just high stools.

Eventually I helped Pippin wave goodbye and explained that it was time for lunch, but that I'd enjoyed meeting him. Which wasn't a polite lie - it really had been nice. And it made me regret not meeting him before I grumbled about him.

"Eet smakelijk!" he called out cheerfully as we went inside.                                       Bon appetit.


And that is how to be humbled by taking a risk in saying hi.

And that is how the faceless come to have a face.




Comments

  1. EmmaApril 22, 2015 at 12:35 AM

    Mooi beschreven Lee ! leuk dat je buurman nu een gezicht en stem heeft.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From Dinosaurs to Da Vinci (January Unit Studies)

Image
For the sake of planning, fun, and sanity, we're working with unit studies this year for music/Bible/art/science. Pippin still has his normal 2nd grade workbooks: Explode the Code for reading/writing, Developmental Math for math, and Thinking Skills for spatial development, as well Dutch group 3/4 workpages for language. And we have Mystery of History for history, and an ample supply of library books and chapter readers. But our electives have been more random over the last year or so, so having the unit studies planned out is extra fun for all of us. Especially now that Bloom is in preschool 3/4 and is ready for more than wooden puzzles or scribbling on coloring pages. And knowing there is a new little one on the way, it makes me feel better to be preparing easy crafts or making library lists for late-pregnancy-life or newborn-life times when I just don't have the energy to sit at the table and check workbooks.... For January, our themes were:  Bible: Creation, Adam and Eve Ar
Read more

Bowling Over Budgets

Image
Last week I wrote about when logic and frustration came together sweetly... and I replaced all of our mugs . I'm starting to give our bowls the Stink Eye this week. And I spent about an hour yesterday washing and inventorying all our baby bottles and parts. There's something immensely satisfying about actually taking action on a frustrating area of life. No matter how small. And I know in the grand scheme of things it. does. not. matter. that we have mismatched bowls and mugs. If we lived in a seaside cottage or sprawling farmhouse, I think it would be great fun to have whimsical mugs and cups and bowls that visitors would choose favourites from. When I visit my parents' house, I recognise the special mugs that my uncle sent to my brothers about ten years ago. The mugs sit next to The Cup that my mum has measured out ingredients in for her (famous) homemade biscuits for the last fifteen or so years. And there are new little mugs and bowls that they have picked up on trav
Read more

2020 Garden

Image
FEBRUARY :  The crocuses we planted last year started coming up outside, and inside, Pippin and I sat down to plan out our garden. Bloom helped by playing with seed packets as I tried to sort which seeds we had left and which seed packets I had kept because they were worth repeating. I also had charts from last year with lists of what I had planted, when, and whether it worked well or not. A few plants from last year, like my strawberries and honeysuckle, were still alive but dormant.  MARCH :   Every year I optimistically start seeds inside in February, set them out around March or April... and then the frost kills them. So this year I didn't even start the seeds until March. Pippin and I planted lettuce, morning glories, marigold, rucola (arugula), scarlet runner beans, and sweet peas - all seeds that had done well last year. And they all shot up happily in their little starter buckets within a few weeks.  By the end of March I dared to put the biggest and sturdiest plants outsid
Read more