In my imagination, I’ve always entertained the idea of trying to be a person whose actions benefited the common good at the expense of my own interests. Far from being a monk or a saint, I try to live my life this way.
While thinking about others has become natural to me, I have never understood people with high levels of selfishness, narcissism, and arrogant individuals. That was until my downstairs neighbor began complaining about alleged noise coming from my apartment.
I grew up in good single family homes, and I never had (or rather, my mother never had) issues with neighbors, even on days of parties or special events. This doesn’t mean the opposite didn’t occur.
Today I live in an apartment - I don’t know for how long - against my will. I’ve had to deal with many problems like noisy people, some hosting late-night parties, mess in the common areas, and so on, the list is long.
Fate wanted a role reversal. So much chaos was happening that, recently, I decided not to be bothered by the sounds produced by my child. Children play, laugh, cry, and run around the house, and despite all the care we can take, we aren’t leaving our child in the crib all day.
We have frequent visits from the downstairs neighbor. I simply tell them that we’ll do our best. I’m learning, in this situation, not to care, as many people do.