CONCLUSION - Thy Neighbor

Thy Neighbor

          I lay here on the floor beside my daughter’s bed after a long day of riding with training wheels.  I continue to hear the “thumpty-thump” from the neighbor above and the “talkity-talk” from the neighbor beside.  I then reflect on all the roommates I have had over the years, in this apartment and elsewhere.  Even though this evening I have no worries of someone coming in late and doing their best to not wake my daughter or myself, I do feel I still have roommates.  In all actuality, the wall is a mere 2 pieces of a ¾-inch dry wall and a paper-thin piece of aluminum framing that separates me from a Jewish gathering or an African one.  As I head toward the end of this book, I reflect on how far I have come in the pages before this one and in the years of my life. I was born and raised into an environment that shared the same likeness that my daughter and I rest in this evening.  In the 1960s, my parents decided to make a home in Teaneck New Jersey, a multi-racial town. (Teaneck was the first in the nation to bus children from different neighborhoods to increase diversity in the school system.)  The majority of the community was either African American or Jewish.  Then there was a very small percentage who were something else, like my family.  The nice part was that I spent the first 20 years of my life embraced with love by different cultures, as I still am today.

          As an adult, I moved to Harlem to be a minority with a lighter skin tone (at that time) than everyone else.  Apparently, I have been blessed with the confidence of knowing that what lies beneath any religious sector or skin tone is love.  I have come to learn this lesson the only way I know how, and that is doing what is natural  — being social.

My daughter is now fast asleep after I’ve explained that it may be harder to fall asleep with the noise above and beside us. But we should feel blessed that the sounds tonight are of kids playing and parents sharing stories, rather than the sounds of tension.  I would much rather lose a little sleep over sounds of happiness than anything less than love. I do not know what tomorrow will bring to my daughter or our world, but I hope at the end of the day that we can all rest as my daughter has on this day. And this is with peace.  “Sweet dreams, my love.”