{"id":5604,"date":"2026-07-27T08:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5604"},"modified":"2026-07-27T08:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:33:12","slug":"in-spite-of-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/27\/in-spite-of-it-all\/","title":{"rendered":"In Spite of It All"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast<\/em>,\u00a0click here<\/a>
\u00a0

Seattle is famous for its Space Needle, the Pike Place Fish Market, and the spectacular backdrop of Mt. Rainier.

One of the city’s lesser-known attractions, which has long delighted residents, is the Montlake Spite House.\u00a0

The story behind this sliver of a dwelling, not much wider than its own front door, has become clouded by legend.

But its history seems rooted in a real-life divorce battle between a local judge and his estranged wife.\u00a0The judge prevailed in the settlement and received the lion’s share of their property.\u00a0His ex had to be content with a tiny, pie-shaped strip of grass.

That’s when she exacted some architectural revenge.\u00a0\u00a0

She built a spite house.\u00a0\u00a0

As you can see above, it effectively\u00a0blocks the view from an entire side of the judge’s\u00a0house.\u00a0But of course, that was the point.\u00a0Why be mad unless you can display\u00a0your fury to the whole world every time they drive by?

It\u2019s estimated there are 20 spite houses in various corners of the United States.\u00a0They have two things in common.\u00a0

First, they are strange.\u00a0They often have bizarre proportions in order to accommodate non-traditional pieces of real estate.\u00a0One spite house is so narrow that its owner has to step aside just to open the oven door.

Second, they are intentionally provocative.\u00a0Or even vindictive.\u00a0Those who build spite houses want to make a point.\u00a0Therefore they often ruin the view or block the sunlight coming into a neighbor\u2019s house or go out of their way to create an annoying obstacle.\u00a0

There are even more spite fences<\/em>.

Two decades ago, a farmer in Hooper, Utah \u2013 enraged at his neighbor\u2019s criticism of the condition of his property \u2013 stood up three old cars along their shared boundary.\u00a0He calls it Redneck Stonehenge.

Then there’s that strange place in rural Saskatchewan where two ranchers, more than a quarter century ago, had a standoff concerning boundaries.\u00a0Their cattle kept wandering onto each other’s property.\u00a0It was clear they needed to build a new fence.\u00a0It was also clear it wouldn’t be cheap.

The first rancher proposed they share the costs.\u00a0The second rancher balked.\u00a0The first rancher, angry at his neighbor’s obstinacy, went ahead and built the fence at his own expense.

“Well, I see we have our fence,” said the second rancher after it was completed.\u00a0“What do you mean\u00a0our<\/em>?” said the first rancher. “<\/em>I built the fence three feet into my property.\u00a0If any of your animals ever cross into that three-foot zone, up alongside my fence, I will shoot them.”\u00a0The second rancher was forced to build a miles-long second fence, parallel to the first.\u00a0\u00a0

Today, if you visit that part of Saskatchewan, you can still see a mind-boggling memorial to the fact that two neighbors couldn’t find a way to work out their disagreements.\u00a0

Spite houses and spite fences are all about getting even.\u00a0Returning pain for pain.\u00a0

But the problem with building<\/em> a spite house or putting up a spite fence is that you end up having to live <\/em>inside it.

Anne Lamott memorably wrote that refusing to forgive is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die. You, of course, get to play the part of the rat.

The apostle Paul wrote something memorable, as well:\u00a0\u201cBear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.\u00a0Forgive as the Lord forgave you\u201d <\/em>(Colossians 3:13).

Do you live in a spite house?\u00a0Or are you blessed to live in a grace house?

The view is so much more uplifting from the latter.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0 Seattle is famous for its Space Needle, the Pike Place Fish Market, and the spectacular backdrop of Mt. Rainier. One of the city’s lesser-known attractions, which has long delighted residents, is the Montlake Spite House.\u00a0 The story behind this sliver of a dwelling, not much wider than its own front door,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[192,406,1155],"class_list":["post-5604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-reconciliation","tag-revenge","tag-spite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5606,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5604\/revisions\/5606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}