Once there was a beautiful horse. It looked unhappy every day and so he went to see the God and asked, “My God! I hear that you can meet everyone’s need. Can you help me?” “OK, my son. What do you need?” asked the God. “You have given me some advantages. I am very thankful to you. But now I wish you could make me more beautiful,” said the horse.

The God said, “I have no idea how to make you more beautiful. Tell me what you want to be like.” The horse said, “If you can make my neck a little longer, my upper body will be more beautiful. And if you can make my legs much thinner, then I will look more beautiful in my lower body.”

The God said, “Amen!” Then he made a camel( 骆 驼 ) appear in place of the horse. The horse was so sad that it started to cry, “Oh, God, I wanted to become more beautiful. Am I more beautiful now?”

The God said, “This is what you asked for. You have become a camel.” The horse cried, “Oh no, I don’t want to be a camel!”

The God said, “Never try to get more than I have given you. If you do, at every moment you will want more and more. But you have no idea what the result will be.”

We often face the following situations in our daily life: The woman next door plays her piano after 12 o’clock at night. The family across the street never cleans up their yard. The rubbish blows into your yard. The man next door always parks his car in front of your drive.

Have things like this ever happened to you? If so, you may ask yourself, “Who are these people? Why are they doing these things to me?”

These days, many people don’t know their neighbors. Sometimes we share a friendly smile or say hello, but lots of people don’t even know their neighbor’s names! When you don’t know someone, it’s easy to be angry when something has happened that you think is unfair. You think, “Maybe they like to make me angry,” or “Maybe they do it on purpose.” Believe it or not, your neighbors probably don’t mean to irritate (激怒) you. Often, they don’t even know that they’re making you feel angry. So before you take unusual steps to fix the problem, you should discuss it with them first.

When you move towards your neighbors, you should talk to them in a friendly manner. Praise their children to make them feel good. Then explain the situation. And if you can think of a simple way to solve the problem, suggest it.

If talking doesn’t work, ask another person to help. This person can listen to both sides of the story and help you and your neighbor solve the situation.

Finally, sometimes it’s a good idea to avoid the problem. Depending on the problem, it might be best to just stay out of your neighbor’s way.