November 2025, Anyway…
For those living in a world of endless convenience, an inconvenience seems almost like a crime. Spending many years of my young adulthood living in an old apartment building, I grew to tolerate all the inconveniences of living in a creaky building surrounded by various strange people. The hallway smelled like their food (not a good thing), the floors above creaked as they walked around at all hours, and conversations in the hallway permeated the poorly insulated walls. Living in proximity to others is inconvenient. But we learned to live with it.
Now that we own our own home in town, the bothers of other people’s proximity is not so bad, but not absent entirely. Loud trucks driving by our stretch of highway, noisy children going to and from school, the rare but projecting sounds of nearby domestic discontent, the city requirements of shoveling snow and keeping the lawn well kept, and so many other things bother the comfortable serenity of our home lives.
To some, these disturbances are unbearable. Any noise disturbance is reason to call in a complaint, even if it is well within the noise ordinance of the city. Kids wandering about town is looked on with suspicion and the audacious disturbance of, for instance, trick-or-treating is met with locked doors, darkened lights, and absent decoration. (I am not saying that everyone should feel obligated to take part in Halloween, but that many choose not to simply because it inconveniences them). The explosive all night celebrations of the 4th of July; the blockading of roads for Civil War Days or the Community Days markets, the road construction; its all so...inconvenient.
Living in a city comes with disturbance. If we are to be honest, living, in general, comes with disturbance. As internet services, streaming entertainment, and delivery services become more common, as people work from home more, and as the world becomes more and more convenient within our homes, these elements of life that exist for a small active community will only seem more abrasive until the only recourse is to move out to a distant and lonesome home far from other people. Perhaps a desert home in the rural areas of Nevada would leave you in peace.
Yet, there is another option. We can lean into the activities, the noises, and the community. We can take part in those things that are otherwise inconvenient to us. We can join in the holiday festivities, spend time talking to our neighbors, go to City Council Meetings, and shop local businesses in-person. When we take part in the activities of the community, we start to see that many of these irritants are actually valuable and meaningful parts of Milton. We can appreciate the noisy kids going by because we have seen them at the Holiday Tree Lighting or in the 4th of July Parade or handed them treats on Halloween. And when they grow into adults and are working at the shops, fixing your appliances, or plowing your road, you won’t see that person as some stranger but as a fellow Miltonian. And what better benefit is there than not finding disturbing that which once irritated you?
