LIVE AND LET LIVE

Hmmm kinda reminds me of a movie I once saw.  Some hunky actor if I remember correctly….

Every day when I get up, I say thank you.  I just love going out into the living area and see the sunshine pouring in and feel so blessed that I found such a wonderful house to live in, and in such a beautiful neighbourhood, here in South Park.

I know that as much as I have yanked some chain about living here in Sandycove, the New Wild West, it is a great place to live and play and just be yourself.   My opinion, after a year’s worth of residence and experiences here in what is probably Ontario’s premier Adult Lifestyle Community, is that it is worth the drive to Innisfil, from whence you’ve come. There seems to be a lot of former residents from York Region here in SP (South Park), especially the more northern parts of it, including the Town Down Below.  It’s kinda like old home week but you’re just meeting for the first time.

I really didn’t have any pre-conceived ideas about what it would be like to live in a “retirement” community, so in I moved one beautiful sunshiny June day and discovered a whole brand new world.  After the first few months I had met pretty much everyone on my quiet street and nearly everyone is quite pleasant.  I think that most people, as they mature, relax about a lot of things that they used to get their knickers in a knot about in their younger days, you know, way back when they had the energy to get those bloomers blowing in the breeze about the slightest injustice, real or perceived. 

Lazing back in my comfy lounge chair, on my shady porch, I think back to the ‘olden’ days, and remember first becoming aware of protests, especially one in which a young man, a student, was killed at Berkeley University in the U.S.  His death torched never-to-be-forgotten riots, which lead to more deaths, injuries and general mayhem.  I wonder if Reagan was happy with the way he decided to deal with the situation.  I was 15.  Even at that young age, the death of someone pretty close to my age, for no good reason, had a huge impact on me.  I believe that those riots stirred the social activist in me and even to this day I am ready to fight for the underdog, the weak, the poor, the uneducated and the naïve ones, upon whom the greedy prey.  BUT and it is a BIG but, do not mistake my kindness and caring for weakness. 

The reasons for these historic passive protests are interesting and as varied as the generations which spawned them.  Segregation, free speech, the war in Vietnam, which provoked a unique protest by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, the Bed-in and most recently, down in the Big Smoke, in 2011, Occupy Toronto.                                        

 

Oh, and how the reasons seem to have gone from the glory of freedom of speech, ending unnecessary wars and abolishing segregation to the self-indulgence of avarice and differences of opinion.  I speak of Occupy Toronto (one of the cities protestors targeted), for the former.  The sole purpose of this sit-in?  Some don’t-have-anythings decided to speak up against the inequality of the have-it-alls, having it all.  Yep, staging a sit-in really is a way to make a difference in your economic situation.  I wonder how many of the protestors had jobs?  Oh, and had jobs which paid them while they were sitting-in?  Other than the ‘professional’ agitators, I mean.

The latter, which first started out as peaceable sit-ins and have since denigrated into never-ending riots, is the situation in Egypt.  Apparently, grievances are focused on legal and political issues, and interestingly enough, involves free speech and free elections.  Mostly though, from what I've read, hark back to that old stand-by, money - economic issues.  Most recently the riots seem to be centered about the ousted President, Hosni Mubarak - some people like that and some people don't.  Okay, let us riot some more.  We don't have jobs anyway, so riot it is.

I say live and let live.  Get along with your neighbours.  Stay out of their business and, hopefully, they’ll stay out of yours.  We, none of us, are perfect.  As I recall from my karate training days, perfection is a direction.  And, what does the bible say?  “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”  I was not put here on this earth to judge and I do not expect to be judged, except by my Maker.  Again, to quote the good book, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”

There are many things I see here in South Park, SCA, which I could ‘judge’, should judging be part of my life’s job description, which it isn’t.  But they certainly are grist for the writer’s mill.  Most of the time, though, I forgo the grist in order to maintain civil relationships.  Some people just don’t seem to know when to keep their mouth’s shut though and mind their own business and I hear a lot from my neighbours and friends along my dog walking routes.

One of the most peculiar is the one I've heard from two or three residents, about an older woman who just sits on her porch, day after day, just rocking away, not goin' anywhere, in her rocking chair.  That, in itself, is not peculiar.  What is strange, according to Hoyle, is that she shouts nonsense at whoever happens to be around, then cackles hysterically, eerily reminiscent of a famous movie character.
 

It just amazes me what some people want to expend their energy on – especially at an age when most Sandycovers seem to just want to let it all hang out and use their time wisely - contemplating their navels or napping.  

© 2015 Phyllis Mahon aka Undercoversandycove-r - “ALL IMAGES AS COPYRIGHTED BY PHYLLIS MAHON ARE PROTECTED AND REGISTERED … IT’S UNLAWFUL TO REPOST, COPY OR PUBLISH IMAGES FROM THIS WEBSITE.”