Kind of interesting, I guess??? I was walking to my car the other day, and I hear two of my neighbors going at it. It's this mother who lives with her two twenty-something sons and a little girl born to a Baby Mama who's no longer around. Okay, that's the back story. No big deal. The big deal is, what they were talking about. Or, should I say, screaming about. The son was literally screaming at his mother, telling her in no uncertain terms, “You are a sixty-year-old slut!”
 
Now, I think anybody who's grown up in any reality of whatever reality had some problems with their parents when they were younger. Usually, by your mid-twenties, however, that kind of melodrama is gone. Or, at least, overlooked or buried down deep. You've learned how to deal with whatever feelings and emotions you've had, be they good, bad, or otherwise. But, in this case, obviously the son had not.
 
He went on to scream that, “You're living for free! Your two sons are paying your rent!” The thing that made me kind of smile when he screamed that at his mother is that I looked over to my lady and I said to her, “If she was Korean, she would just say, ‘Well, isn't that the way it's supposed to be?’”
 
This is where we break things down into culture. Here in America, pretty much no kid gives two-shits about their parents. And, very few of them really spend any time taking care of them. Although, the truth be told, I do know some that have. Many/most, however, don't really possess that ideology. And, in many cases, the minute you turn eighteen or so, your parents pretty much kick you to the curb. This is not the case within Korean culture, at all. Many/most of the kids stay at, “Home,” until they get married. In fact, most do. And, helping their parents out financially: paying their rent or doing whatever they need to do to make their life better, that's just the accepted norm. It’s really a cultural thing.
 
Now, obviously this family I’m talking about has some very deep-rooted issues. And, that's theirs to deal with. None of my business! It's only my business in the sense that they were basically screaming what they were screaming out on the street for everyone to hear. And, I guess that's what the son wanted. He wanted everybody to hear what his mother is doing, what he's doing for her, and how he feels about that somehow he considers to be wrong. Toxic!
 
I think it's always interesting living in the city. I know that in some of places I've lived, over my years of adulthood, and even before, I've lived next-door to some really toxic people. I’ve spoken about some of them in this blog over the years. Don't get me wrong, most of the people have been super cool. But, there have been a few cases where I had some really, really toxic neighbors.
 
I think the first occurrence was when I moved into my very first apartment. Downstairs was this guy who had retired, and every night he would come home from the bar just fucked up beyond belief. He'd be yelling and screaming and pounding on the walls. This got to be really amplified when I used to play music.
 
As a young man, with an electric guitar, that was my whole world. My whole world, outside from my life with the martial arts and the Eastern spiritual community I was associated with, of course. But, like many young musicians, we practice and practice and practice. I never played too loud, however. I was always very conscious of my neighbors. But to him, I guess any sound but my silence was earth shattering. He would pound on the walls and drunkenly scream. You know, it was just a horrible thing to have to live through that, not only for me, but for other neighbors, as well. But, by that point in his life, he had already sewn his oats. He had already set his final destiny into motion. Me, I was just eighteen years old and going to college. So…
 
Anyway, that's just one example. There's been a few others in my life. A few that I have spoken about and a few that I haven't spoken about. And, of course, I suppose I haven't been the perfect neighbor in certain periods of my life either???  But, this being said, I've always tried to remain very conscious of other people. So, whenever I encounter people like this, literally screaming out on the street, it's quite a revelation.
 
The thing is, and this is the thing about life, whatever you do to other people sets an entire realm of Next Action into motion. Obviously, this woman that I was talking about has been a less-than-ideal parent. At least, so as defined by her one son, who obviously has a lot of issues with her. The thing is, issues with your parents, certainly don't come out of nowhere. I believe we can all attest to that. How about you?
 
But me, I never found myself screaming at my mother in public. Insulting her, in a very horrendous sort of way.
 
It seems that behavior like that goes to the root of the person. And, maybe that's what I'm speaking about here. What is your root? What makes you do what you do? And, what makes you treat other people the way you treat other people? I believe that this is something that few people truly investigate in their own life. It certainly is something that few people dig down deep and find out their reason why they behave the way they do towards other people: be it family members or otherwise. They just do. How about you?
 
But, the problem in Just Doing is that once you do something, that something is done, and in that, “Something done,” something else is always created, be that positive or negative. Do you ever think about that before you do?
 
So, here's the question: Why do you treat other people the way you treat other people? Are you in control of the way you treat other people? Or, are you completely out of control? Are you willing to scream your true, deep, inner-feelings, no matter how rooted in darkness they may be out on the street for the world to hear at a person? A person that literally gave you life. Or, are you Whole enough to understand that your feelings are simply that, just your feelings, and though they may cause you to feel a certain kind of way, that does not make you rise to the level of a person who only cares about the way you are feeling, never understanding that anything about anyone else?