firecracker

A friend of mine quoted mother teresa for me the other night:

Jesus said love one another. He didn't say love the whole world.

its the very simplicity of this statement i find so daunting. but i also feel like i'm off the hook now, i don't have to love the whole world for all its you know, stuff that i don't agree with...being so wrapped up in lofty ideals really tends to make me bitter.

i don't know my neighbors name, although we call him 'firecraker' following a confrontation he initiated late one night after he returned from some cheesy concert coked up. he screamed at us for shooting off fireworks, and he was certainly entitled to ask us to stop blowing stuff up. after we agreed to stop, he persisted in screaming at us. at one point he grabbed our wine bottle, and smashed it in the street. he then reached for his knife. as he reached for his knife, everyone i was with pulled their knife, which seemed to shock him. thankfully this deterred him, he thought better not to pull his knife. finally he went home, and hasn't said a word about the incident since. for me, how am i suppose to love my neighbor who does this? is firecracker my neighbor or the whole world?


MT:
Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.

-c