Sometimes life just doesn’t seem fair. We have lived in our house for 11 years. Every 4th of July and New Years we have neighbors that shoot off fireworks for several hours, often over a couple of days. Often times we end up with fireworks debris in our back yard. This isn’t really a big deal to me, but it is illegal to shoot fireworks where I live. So every year we go out in the back yard and light up our sparklers and other legal “fireworks” and watch the neighbors illegal fireworks show. This year I decided to add a little bit to our sparkler experience.
Since we can’t go anywhere, I bought a fountain to go along with the sparklers. Nothing extravagant and certainly nothing that would end up in the neighbors yard. It barely went higher than the fence. I went out and found a good, safe place in the yard that was away from trees (which is difficult to do in our back yard). After enjoying what seemed like hours of sparklers, it was time for the grand finale.
We gathered the family around to watch the amazing fountain. I lit the fountain and we watched as showers of sparks entertained us for about a minuted and a half… maybe. The grand display was barely over when I noticed flashlights shining in the front yard, heading up to the gate.
I went to the gate and met our friendly police officers and promptly received a reprimand for shooting fireworks where I was not supposed to. I was kind to the officers as they were doing their job, but I will have to say I was more than a little frustrated. My neighbors shoot their fireworks every year for hours. In 11 years, I shoot of one fountain (I’m not really sure you can even call that a firework) and I have the police knocking on my door. How is that even fair??
But it doesn’t matter that the neighbors do this all the time. What I did was still not right and I knew it. What kind of example was I setting for my kids? I think the kids rather enjoyed their dad getting into trouble.
It is easy to focus on what the neighbors are doing and that to all appearances they are either getting by with it, ignoring the warnings, or just paying the fines and carrying on. It is easy to think it is not fair and to want justice.
Sometimes I think life just isn’t fair. But the fact is that life is not fair. It doesn’t have to be. And I really don’t want it to be. If I got what I truly deserved, it would not be good. What I deserved was a fine for breaking the law. What I received was the grace and mercy of a verbal warning.
When we try to make everything fair for me, it suddenly becomes not so fair for someone else. Equal is not fair. If someone works harder than me or is more disciplined than me, it is only fair that they achieve more than I do. Too often I find myself using the phrase “it’s not fair” to mean I want what someone else has, but I just want it given to me.
Well, we had a great 4th of July. My kids enjoyed the fountain and dad “almost getting arrested”, and I enjoyed the friendly police officers giving me something to write about.
Hope you had a great holiday.
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Funny story and insight to part of our country’s problems. Great Post.
Thanks for reading and commenting. It was a fun July 4th.