Don't quit and don't die...

On the board of the Aikido dojo are these words "To be good in Aikido, don't quit and don't die!" I suppose this can be applied to almost everything in life. "To be good in _____, don't quit and don't die!" Some days though, it is exceptionally hard to observe this simple rule. Today is one of those days that I find it awfully hard to be in harmony with the universe. At work, I have gotten into misunderstandings with co-workers over seemingly minor matters. It is a pretty small group and of the group, I think I could only effectively consider 2 of them to be friendly/normal. The rest have developed this hostile resentment against anything and anybody. My job in itself is not difficult. The tasks assigned to me are straight-forward and I can do most of it with relative ease. The tough part is working with people. Simply put, these people are just frustrating to work with. They don't communicate normally and have a defensive/political agenda towards everything. Worse of all, some are just plain rude and unpleasant, the kind that makes you think that you OWE them a fucking living. This week is particularly bad because I am forced to work in close proximity with such a person. The natural urge is to want to quit. Yet, without better options in hand, it is best to just dig in and let this blow past. The other thing, apart from work, that bothered me was this... Every Wednesday morning, the neighbours and I, take our rubbish and recycling out to the common area (a grassed patch next to the pavement) by the main road for collection. As I retrieved my recycling bin, I found some old newspapers inside, weighed down by a stone. Next to my recycling bin, was a pile of animal doo. My initial thoughts were that of bewilderment. Why did someone leave newspapers in my recycling bin? Did the recyclers forget to collect them? Then I saw the poo and made the connection; one of the neighbours left the newspapers there so that I could clear the poo up! It wasn't my pet, wasn't my fault that some animal pooped there but yet I am supposed to clear it? Of course I could ignore it but that would just piss the neighbour off. It is obvious that he/she (I reckon it is one of those senile retirees) has gotten very attached to that patch of grass. So. Even if it wasn't my fault, I cleared it up. According to Jesus, one should "love thy neighbours" and "turn the other cheek". In this case it is "turn the other shit". Jeez, it sure is hard to be Catholic! Not trying to be a pessimistic complainer and it is not that my life sucks or anything as my blog probably implies. I do commit my problems to it as a ritual of dealing with them and then forgetting them. It has been the most beautiful Wellington summer day apart from those incidents...