I wrote this post in 2019 and it still makes me laugh when I play with our dog and think of my good neighbor, looking out his window and thinking he lives next door to a total jerk.

Sometimes things are exactly as they seem. Other times, though, our own angle on the situation means it’s impossible to see clearly on our own.

Our nearest neighbor has a window overlooking our front yard. Over the years he’s watched every manner of sibling skirmish, often reporting his observations later; philosophizing on how these childhood moments will affect the kids later. Sometimes he he ends the story by reminding the bigger kids that the little guys will someday be big too, so treat ’em well (or else!). He’s a great neighbor. We all share a laugh about these moments, and I’m thankful for him in our “village.”

Recently he observed a situation so shocking, so unbelievable, that he didn’t wait long to tell Brian the whole story of what he’d seen. Only this time, it wasn’t about any of the kids: It was me.

They were sitting outside. When I walked out within the very hour I encountered two sheepish faces. “Rusty told me what he saw,” Brian mentioned fake-casually, with a sneaky smile.

“What’s that?”

“He says he saw you kicking the dog.”

“He … what?”

I hadn’t kicked the dog, so I thought they were messing around, until Rusty began explaining what he’d seen. It was yesterday. No one else was around at the house. From the window, he’d seen me kick little June, and she ran away. Then he saw me kick her again. And again!

I racked my brain for what he may be remembering. Listen, I’m not the biggest dog person. He might already have known that, I don’t know. But I know I’ve never kicked her. Oh! Except once when we were kicking the soccer ball to her, and she ran right straight into my foot-swing and — hey…wait!

“Was this yesterday, late afternoon?” I ventured.

“Yes, it was,” his smile spreading. He’s going to think its funny if I’m busted.

“Could it be you saw me kicking the soccer ball to June, and her running after it?”

Now he starts to look sheepish in a slightly different manner as we all begin to realize how the facts are situated.

“I did spend some time kicking the soccer ball to the dog yesterday afternoon.”

He never saw the ball. I can’t fault him that; the angle he could see from was certainly not a clear one. The ball was the same color as the dog. He probably had never noticed that dog soccer is her favorite game. We all had a good laugh. But I’m sure glad we got that sorted out. And I’m glad now no one has to go around thinking I’m a dog-kicking jerk.

Sometimes, all it takes is a dose of proper perspective to clear up misperceptions.