June 15 - Massachusetts

Integrity: Lacking

Apologies in advance, no pix tonight. I have been pretty busy unpacking and cleaning off books this week. My brother put my bookshelves together for me last weekend, and I am very quickly chipping away at "the wall of books". Of course they all need to be cleaned, but it is nice to see them going in place!

Originally my post was going to be about something else, but I found out some extremely disturbing information that changed that. I am writing about integrity and doing the right thing.

The night of the fire. As my followers recall I woke from a short nap to discover thick black plumes of smoke coming up through the living room floor. I yelled to my neighbors, etc. My neighbor across the hall (with whom I am close) took her dog and ran downstairs to notify the first-floor family of the fire while her significant other tried to help quell the fire.

I found out recently, much after the fact, THE 1st FLOOR NEIGHBORS KNEW THE BUILDING WAS ON FIRE. They did not bother to alarm any of the other tenants, knowing we were all home and had pets. They had already called someone to pick up their kids and had loaded all their pets into the car. They were taking out their most prized possessions.

Without. Telling. Anyone. The. Building. Was. On. Fire.

They did not even call "911". All I can think is, how evil. There is no other word for it. EVIL. Knowing the building is on fire, you are the people responsible for it and not bother to raise the alarm to the neighbors in the building? How do you NOT do the right thing??

I do not know how they can sleep at night knowing what they failed to do. They are not fresh out of school; both of them are in their late 30s.

I am so disgusted by their lack of integrity. I wish I could bleach this out of my brain.

As soon as I realized what was happening I opened both apartment doors & screamed for my neighbors across and upstairs to get out. Yes - one of my worst nightmares is my cats getting outside. But a fire & smoke? I figured my kitties would have a better chance of surviving if they did escape.

I am trying to remain calm about this. Bad things happen when I am angry, and knowing this makes me angrier than I have ever been in my life.

Integrity: Being honest and having strong moral and ethical principles. Neither of these two people possess it.

I am glad my life is filled with people of integrity - the one anomaly gone. Perhaps we take it for granted, or having been brought up that way we miss the signs of those who are not. I tend to believe in the inherent goodness of things (with a healthy dose of trepidation).

I will not allow this to overshadow my newfound happiness in life here in my yellow house!

Although I will apologize for the next statement, I mean it with feeling.

Karma's a bitch, guys.