Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.

I have never been as upset with someone I've never actually met as I've been with whoever lives upstairs from where I've been dog sitting for the past two weeks. Every sliding door in the unit upstairs sounded like a train was going through the apartment below,

and every footstep above shook the picture frames on the walls next to me.

From the sound of chairs scraping against the floor overhead to music coming through the ceiling,

I swear it once sounded like they were bowling upstairs.

On my third day there, construction started on their bathroom renovation. I was absolutely exhausted, violently furious, and as my friend says, the streets of my mind

were not safer for anyone.

I couldn't get any work done during the day and I didn't get any sleep at night because I couldn't stop thinking

about how inconsiderate it is for the people upstairs to do whatever they want

with no regard for how their decisions negatively impact others. Suddenly any thought about the people upstairs

took on a whole new meaning. It wasn't just the neighbors above me. The people upstairs

became a reference to the few people at the top who passed laws that affect everyone below.

In business speak, the people upstairs is a reference to upper management, making decisions that affect every employee.

And in politics, it's the Supreme Court changing local

regulations. The people upstairs and I'm no longer talking about the neighbors

above me are the ones who decide what noise is considered a nuisance and what is not.

Can they tell people not to run the dishwasher after 9 p.m. because it sounds like an airplane

taking off in the apartment below?

Or would that restriction infringe on the tenant's rights to do

whatever they want whenever they want to? Keep in mind that for the past three years

my friend has been paying thousands of dollars each month to live like this in an apartment that he absolutely loves,

completely unbothered by the same noise that nearly drove me crazy.

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