The summer of 2016 was exciting. My family and I met up with my brother and my niece at Cape Look Out for a week adventure. It was truly an awesome time. Except for…wait for it…. There is always something right?
Cape Look Out has two overnight stay facilities. You can camp but If you want a cabin there are just two sites. There are sites with electricity and there are sites without. Both sites have running water. We took the cheaper route and went more primitive. This meant open windows for air flow. No air conditioning! As long as we could take a shower to wash the grime off of us, we were ok with no electricity.
Fast forward two nights and around 9pm that evening all of the sudden the roar of a generator pierced the air. It was freakin loud! It apparently had no muffler. It was several cabins over, and we thought – ok well that is loud and annoying, but they are probably doing some cooking or something that obviously requires electricity and they will be done soon. 10 o’clock rolled around still going, 11 o’clock rolled around still going. It’s getting close to midnight now and it was time for bed and the roar of the generator was still pounding the air.
Me being an experienced camper with scout leaders who snore, had plenty of ear protection! I handed out the ear plugs to everyone. My wife had never used them before and within 10 minutes out they came from her ears. She couldn’t use them because they caused her to feel her heart pounding in her body and head and that was just as bad as the banging of the generator.
Off I fell to sleep. At some point I woke in the middle of the night and that stupid generator was still blasting! It had to be somewhere around 3:30 in the morning. My wife? Gone. Nowhere to be found. I went outside to look around and she was gone. I went back inside to grab my glasses and shoes to go find her.
I walked back outside and out of the darkness appeared my wife. She had gone over to the cabin that had the annoying generator to see what the deal was. As she walked by the cabin a couple times and looked in, there was man inside who was up and moving around. He noticed my wife and came out to see why she was at his cabin. (Can you say hello?) As my wife went on to explain that she could not sleep due to the generators excessive noise the man’s reply was this: I sleep with a CPAP machine and so I need the generator to operate it so I can sleep. My wife literally walked away in tears.
So who was right? Does this man have the right to sleep with his annoying generator so he can run his CPAP machine or does my wife have a right to sleep in peace? According to the Ranger my wife spoke to the next day, the man had the right and there was nothing he could do.
When LOVE PREVAILS – this is how we should respond:
I have a disability. Bipolarism takes me out sometimes. I have to step back from things and separate myself from people and sometimes even events so that I can rest and not affect others with offensive behavior. At this point, my offensive behavior is more along the lines of saying things I really shouldn’t. We are all guilty of this at times, but when I am in hypomania it can be a little too much and I send the wrong signals to people.
So? I am responsible for my behavior. I need to love those around me by limiting myself – self-control – fruit of the Spirit. Sometimes I need to step back and not participate in something because of my disability. I don’t get to negatively impact others with my disability. I have to follow the same rules as you.
Who is Right? – LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF