My Neighbors Dug A Two-Acre Lake On My Land While I Was Out Of State—Then Told Me Their Contractor Said It Was Theirs, And That Was The Day I Learned How Expensive Arrogance Can Be

the strip?”

“No.”

“Not even once?”

I took a drink of warm Gatorade. “Once or twice, I wished I was the kind of person who could.”

He nodded like he understood.

“Would’ve been easier,” he said.

“Maybe.”

“But then every time you looked that way, you’d know.”

That was exactly it.

People talk about standing your ground as if it is always proud and clean. It is not. Sometimes it is expensive, lonely, and ugly. Sometimes it makes you look unreasonable to people who only see the surface. Sometimes you