This afternoon I attended a homeowners' meeting for the first time, and what I thought to be just a simple boring gathering turned out to be something truly unexpected.

Every homeowner has his or her request that somehow borders on gaining everything for his or her benefit, regardless of whether it is within reason or if it would be at the disadvantage of his/her neighbor. Most of the requests/complaints are silly, take for instance the man who wishes to grow fruit bearing trees on his yard, despite the fact that doing so would cause damage not only to his property but also the subdivision's road once its roots spreads , he still makes all sorts of worthless protestation in the hopes of getting what he wants. Another is the woman who behaves like she has lived all her life in a sterile environment. She has no problem blaming cats for everything, from disease to everything going wrong in her garden.

The property manager tried as best she could to listen and find a way to grant their requests and respond to their complain. But as the day went on, they did not seem to run out of things to complain about and if their request were granted they wanted more!

I feel terrible for the manager. Having a job title like her's people must think she is some sort of all powerful, supernatural entity that could, with a flick of her finger, give whatever their hearts desire. But in reality what most people fail to grasp is that as managers there is only so much one can do, At the end of the day it is still the administration who gets the final say.

Sitting there listening to their pettiness, reminded of what Seju Mishil (a favorite character of mine from a Korean drama) said, that if a King were to go out of his palace and listen to what the people want. He will get an earful of requests and even if he somehow manages to fulfill them, the people will surely have more to ask because there is no quelling man's greed.

This must be how tyrants are made. Perhaps a good man wanted to be a leader who champions the people. But after seeing their greed and their shallowness, he decides to ignore them altogether, and does whatever he wants, instead.