Sidewalks are for walking

This blog is really about selfishness, and the thousands of selfish things that we do on a daily basis. Selfishness is necessary to our survival, but we have a screwed up understanding of what benefits us individually and collectively. I don't know if that comes from greed, capitalism, or an immature view of the world, but the issue is the key to morality and how it is developed. Look at the ten commandments--they work because they make sense. They work in the same way that dogs know not to poop in an enclosed space. It is about survival. You don't sleep with your neighbor's wife because it is essentially pooping in your own backyard. Yes, selfishness can get you the nice parking spot, but at whose expense? And will that person remember?

When we decide to do something for selfish reasons, we have to remember that if we hurt the people who are close to us, physically or spiritually, we damage our chances for good things to happen to us. Call it Karma or Morality, it doesn't really matter. Micro morals may seem small in reference to adultery, pride, gluttony, and the rest, but I assure you that if you practice unselfishness, then those larger morals will be easy to keep.

An easy example of this is where you park. We all would love to park our cars as close to our homes as possible, but who are we hurting when we do? People choose to live in neighborhoods for all kinds of reasons, but many of us like to believe that the outdoors around our homes are as important as the square footage, and the way that we experience the neighborhood is through the sidewalks. But in many neighborhoods people park their cars on the at the end of their driveways over the sidewalks. At the very minimum, this is an inconvenience, but if these cars are forcing kids to walk on the street, it can be very dangerous. Needless to say, it pisses me off. I have considered letting my dogs collar scratch the paint on these cars or maybe bumping my kids' wagon into it. Whatever you have to do to keep from parking your car on a sidewalk is a kindness that may go unnoticed, but that makes it a grand one.