Neighborly

 

            Since all of our neighbors are soon to be gone, fled to warmer climates, I’ve come to examine just what it means to be neighborly. Two recent examples come to mind:

 

            Rick and Sandy, our neighbors to the north, demonstrated how to be neighborly when we had all our smoke alarms go off – as I wrote about in a previous blog. They immediately stepped up, disconnected the offending alarms, and called their electrician to come by the next day to get our alarm system working properly. They stepped up without hesitation – at least, none that we could see. They stepped up in a similar way when a large branch fell on our garage. They called a carpenter who had done good work for them, and he showed up to repair the damage. Aside from the specific gratitude for these actions, I also felt a kind of warmth knowing we have neighborly neighbors who are looking out for us.

 

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            I deleted a paragraph about our un-neighborly neighbors. Who wants to read someone else’s complaints? But I confess that I did enjoy writing it . . ..

 

            This neighborly issue is important because we are old. We are at an age when we need a back-up in case something goes wrong. And it really helps if our back-up is close – as Rick and Sandy were, and other former neighbors were (that’s you, Barry and Karen). Though we didn’t have to call on them, we knew they were there for us. They would, for one example, keep an eye on our vacant house when we were doing the snowbird thing between Michigan and Florida. There are a lot of needs that can occur short of a 9-1-1 call. We have family who would drop everything and come to our rescue, but that’s not the same as a neighbor who can fetch some milk from the market when we are too sick or injured to go get it, or drive us to the dentist appointment.

 

            My dictionary’s first definition of neighbor is “one living or located near another.” Clear enough. But I am drawn to the second definition of neighbor: “fellow man.” Setting the “man” issue aside, I am drawn to the example of this definition in action: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Being “neighborly,” then, means bending toward the second definition, and extending the range a bit beyond next door. Loving thy neighbor as thyself might be a big ask, but it’s good to keep it in your heart, your words, and your behavior. That’s my neighborly advice.