When have people become so selfish?

This is a question that I have asked myself for a while now.   Don't you feel like everyone in the world just purely cares about themselves anymore and kindness and appreciate, not to mention respect for others have gone out the window?  

I have many examples of people being selfish.   But the one that put me over the edge happened to us just yesterday.  I hesitate even posting about it publicly because it's kind of embarrassing but I feel that blogging will help me "let go" of the anger I have about the whole subject. 

As many of you know, we just recently purchased a home in the northern Minneapolis area.   Anyway, last August we signed a lease to rent a private party's home in Stacy, Minnesota.   It was a nice enough house but nothing special.   We found it on Craigslist and never met the owner because he lived in South Dakota at the time.  We went and looked at it and were happy with it at that moment.   It was the right price and fit our family until we found a home of our own.   We were honest with the guy that we had a pet and children.    He was honest with us about how he wanted someone who would really take care of his home and emailed us a long list of things that were required of us if we live there.   This list was so long, it scared me at first because it was a lot of things that landlords should be doing, not the tenants.  But, we signed anyway and lived in the house for just under a year.    The house has 5 acres and a lot of pretty landscaping, including a huge pond with flowers everywhere.    The house was very outdated, I'm talking 1970's peach outdated and needed a lot of work if you were to buy it.     We paid our rent on time every month and took care of the home like it was our own.   We never left a mark on a wall or stained a carpet and we put a lot of our own money into fixing some things and making the yard beautiful.   I even asked the owner if I could update the paint for him, he would pay for the paint and supplies and I would do it for free.  And, let me tell you, painting every room in a house with three kids is not easy.  Throw in a car accident right in the middle and it made it even harder.  But,  I got it done and used nice light colors to brighten up the place.   

This weekend, we moved out of the house and my husband met up with the owners on Saturday morning to walk thru the place.    Everything seemed fine.  Our Ranger was in the pole building and we had some garbage in the garage but  the owners said to take our time getting them out because they hadn't found anyone to rent the place.   (He really wanted to sell it because they now live in Texas but they are quite delusional on what they think the place is worth, the appraiser and the realitor both told him that they would never get near what they wanted for the place).   Anyway, yesterday, the guy owner called my husband and started going off on him about how pissed off they were at us and how we "trashed" their house and completely "destroyed" their yard and how the place was left a "disgusting mess".    My husband thought it was a joke because we cleaned that whole place from top to bottom and made sure it was in better shape than when we moved in.    When we moved in, it was a horrible dirty mess, cobwebs and dirt everywhere and bugs in the windows, you know, you could tell it hadn't been cleaned after the last people left.   Not to mention, the kitchen was just primed and when they did paint, they dripped everywhere and did a horrible job.    The owner also said that (even though we were paid thru today) to come over immediately and get all of our stuff out right away, he is done with us.    We are completely dumbfounded because it doesn't even make sense what he is saying.   Anyone who has been in the house would support us in the fact that we did not destroy the house, that we have improved it.  

What I have decided is that they are mad that nobody else wants to rent the place so they are taking it out on us and trying to  have a case to keep our $1000 security deposit.    That is the only thing I can think of because it is not destroyed at all.   My heart just aches that someone would accuse us of destroying their home, we are not that kind of people.   We are kind people who take care of things no matter whose things they are.    We are certainly not the kind of people who would trash someone else's house and destroy their yard.    I wish I could just let it go, but I just can't, it makes me so sad that other people can be like that.    People are so shady anymore and only looking out for themselves.  

I hate to say it but it has really changed me in the last five years.   I used to be that person who was always thinking about someone else and doing things for others.  You know, that person who when someone's mother dies, I would cook a meal and bring it over.  Or someone was having a baby and I would cook a meal and bring it over and give you some baby clothes that I had laying around the house without asking for a thing in return.    I would do my best to remember events going on in other people's lives and remember to email or call and check up on them to see how they are doing, etc.    Gradually I am finding myself not caring anymore because it seems like nobody even appreciates it.    That makes me really sad.