Love Thy Neighbour

We don’t need to be brainy to know that as the years roll by, a small plant could grow into a big tree. And, under the right conditions, a tree that’s naturally tall could turn into a mighty tall tree. Like Jack’s beanstalk. However, it’s no fairy tale tree I’m talking about here but a real palm tree that did not exist anywhere near the back porch when we moved to this house. Was that 29 years ago already?

Dottie blowing bubbles. See? No palm tree.

Anyway, if the tree was close to your house—like you stick out a hand while you're standing under the roof of your porch and you could touch the trunk—what would you have done before it reached monstrous proportion? You’d have chopped it down of course, because you’d never know when a typhoon could blow all the way from the Philippines and bash into your tree and leave it leaning against your house.

Palm tree... too close for comfort

Well, it just happens that the back neighbours are either nitwits or they didn’t notice, until today, that their palm tree is now a giant. I woke up to the tock-tock sound of hammering early in the day. Lo and behold! What did I see but three speaking-in-tongues men building a scaffolding next to the tree trunk. The neighbours were finally going to chop down the tree. Waited 29 years to do it. Probably they wanted it for timber... to make chopping boards so they could have one in every room and more for the outside to turn into garden stools or to make paved garden paths or a pretty picket fence.

Now, don’t get me wrong! I don’t care about all that. But all these years, whenever the tail end of a typhoon strayed into the air space of the Land below the Wind, I was scared the tree would fall and crash onto my kitchen roof! Well and good if it means getting a brand new kitchen with all the fancy fittings. But what if no one could afford to even repair the roof?

Taken from the back porch

I know you’re saying, "But the moronic neighbours should bear the cost of the repairs." Hah, they couldn’t even afford to give their beloved dog a decent burial! Yes, these are the same neighbours who covered the carcass of their dog with newspaper and left it lying near our fence and subjected us to months of misery. And talking about fences… when the tree fell it crashed onto our chain-link fence and pressed a length of it (the fence) so it collapsed like an accordion.

My fence collasped under the leaves.

“Nanti kami kasi tarik balik,” one of the oms said. They did their best, I suppose, but the fence is now only half the height it used to be. I’m sure their dogs would now be able to jump across it and land in my yard.

What about the neighbour’s fence? They don’t have a fence. They took out their fence eons ago because they wanted to enlarge their property. Now the drain, which is supposed to be in No Man’s Land has become their property.

When will they ever learn?

In 10 years’ time what happened today will most certainly be repeated because there’s another palm tree and the nincompoops didn’t chop it down. Some people never learn.

Who says it’s easy to love your neighbour?