The Man Next Door. Chapter 29. How To Save The World

ONE DAY.

As I returned home on the train I once more thought   "How can we save the world from environmental destruction?"


What to do first?


I know there are lots of people who care about the state of the world, and who are trying to take action.

But they are not yet working effectively as part of a major force with power to effectively oppose the very few richest and most powerful people and corporations in the world, who currently get their way, deliberately destroying the natural environment in their ravenous hunger for more and more resources to plunder and use, so they can get even richer, as people continue to consume more and more, CO2 levels continue to rise, and the climate changes.


Our world is dominated by corporations and the global 0.01%.


If the super rich and most powerful people in the world are in such a minority, how are they able to get their way?


I think its because we don't really live in a DEMOCRACY, and also because the majority of people don't care enough about saving the environment.


They are just preoccupied with themselves, and their day to day lives, part of the evergrowing, all consuming,  BULLYGREEDOCRACY we live in.




LATER.

I got off the train and walked towards home, late that night.


The only other people I had seen in the street had turned off at the corner, so I walked alone, and came across a very large spectural looking figure standing on a front verandah, his very white face the same colour as his huge white shirt, as he leaned forward grasping his front fence.


It was the extremely fat man, outside his house.


I glanced at his face as I hurried past, not wanting to rudely ignore him, but not wanting to stop to talk.


He looked confused, either not recognising me, or wondering why I was going past with my bags at that time of night.


I was now almost at home, but I could see something strange and interesting hanging on the front fence of the house beyond our house. So I continued on to have a look.


The man next door had draped crumpled items of clothing all along his cast iron front fence, and also on his window and on the cement mixer, bikes and other items on his front verandah.


I thought:: "Has he hung his washing out here, or are the clothes for sale, or for people to take?"


It was too dark to see the clothes clearly, and I was aware that the extremely fat man was probably still watching me, so I walked back to go inside our front door.




NEXT MORNING.


Mother:   I was very tired when I came downstairs this morning.

I was hungry, and really looking forward to a cup of coffee.

I boiled the jug and put hot water into my cup, intending to just heat it, then replace the water.

But next thing I accidentally put a spoonful of coffee into my bowl.

I washed the bowl, and put muesli in, then put a cinnamon stick in my cup of hot water.

Still no cup of coffee!

This time I put a spoonfull of coffee onto the muesli in my bowl.

The next spoonful of coffee went into my cup.



Daughter: I hope you felt better after you finally drank your cup of coffee.



Mother: I'm still feeling tired.

Do you know what the clothes on the man next door's front fence last night were about?


Daughter: He just hung his washing out there.


Mother: But anyone walking by could have taken his clothes!


Daughter: But would anyone want to?


Mother:  He must have hung his washing out there because his clothes line is no longer along his side of our dividing back fence.


I expect he removed his clothes line when he began to remove palings from the fence.


I was surprised when I saw him doing this, close to his back door, just one paling, then another.


So I called out to him through our kitchen window..."Are you demolishing our dividing fence?"


He replied... "Yes", and added ... "I'll soon build a high brick wall in its place!"


A little later, enough palings had been removed from the fence to allow the man next door to come onto our side deck, where he was busy hammering down loose nails.


I saw him there as I was hanging out washing on our back deck.


He said..."I hope you don't mind, but I have to create a safe working environment, wide enough to move around in, on your side of the fence, while I build the new brick wall.


I hope you won't mind the wall. It will be as high as your back upstairs window, and it will slope down to 2.7 meters high where it reaches my back fence, adjacent to the back lane.


See the high measuring stick attached to the corner of the back fence.


I'm going to build an underground room where I will be able to make as much noise as I like."


I asked..."Why does the room have to be so big?", and he replied ....


"Because it will be full of lots of drum kits. People have complained about the noise I make when I play my drums, but when the extensions are finished you won't be able to hear a thing."


Daughter: I'll believe it when I see it!"