Talking to a friend from a rural area, whose nearest neighbor is at least 600 feet away, it made me think of the several places I have lived over the years. As a child I knew all the neighbors within a one mile radius, at least. It was a safe world and as kids we never had to worry about visiting our neighbors. We played in their yards as well as our own, with or without friends who lived there.
Moving to the city is such a contrast. There you are lucky if you get to know any of your neighbors. In the Midwest, neighbors are apt to just walk into your house without knocking...just because the proximity makes people feel close in relationship as well. Well, they did forty years ago...I'm not sure that still happens.
It is said that people are unfriendly in the East. Non-intrusive does not translate to unfriendly. It is sad that it often takes a tragedy, an accident, or freaky and destructive weather to show how close a community feels for one another though they may not get together otherwise. A show like Extreme Makeover touched me deeply when a single mother with her four children were helped and a community came together to keep this woman working at teaching young children to swim, possibly saving many young lives in the process. The University of Utah started a program to help seniors called NHN (Neighbors Helping Neighbors). Many areas have programs called Neighbors Helping Neighbors that are not at all related to the Utah program. They are all over the country but the theme is the same, there is strength in numbers and we must help one another. This has nothing to do with religious belief, just humanness.
Are we as a country so urbanized and frightened of strangers that we have stopped reaching out? Though I have had Open House on Christmas Eve for years to which neighbors were invited, I have stopped doing this after 41 years because I just got too old and tired to put that much effort on top of the rest that goes into the Holiday season. However, neighbors are picking up the ball. Because, by chance, I was at another neighbor's house two summers ago, I met the neighbor on her other side (actually facing another street) whom I never would have met. Through her, I have met many of her friends and neighbors and we will go caroling in the area in a few days. It feels so much better to live in an area where you recognize people and can ask them how they are and know that they are pleased to know you and converse.
Moving to the city is such a contrast. There you are lucky if you get to know any of your neighbors. In the Midwest, neighbors are apt to just walk into your house without knocking...just because the proximity makes people feel close in relationship as well. Well, they did forty years ago...I'm not sure that still happens.
It is said that people are unfriendly in the East. Non-intrusive does not translate to unfriendly. It is sad that it often takes a tragedy, an accident, or freaky and destructive weather to show how close a community feels for one another though they may not get together otherwise. A show like Extreme Makeover touched me deeply when a single mother with her four children were helped and a community came together to keep this woman working at teaching young children to swim, possibly saving many young lives in the process. The University of Utah started a program to help seniors called NHN (Neighbors Helping Neighbors). Many areas have programs called Neighbors Helping Neighbors that are not at all related to the Utah program. They are all over the country but the theme is the same, there is strength in numbers and we must help one another. This has nothing to do with religious belief, just humanness.
Are we as a country so urbanized and frightened of strangers that we have stopped reaching out? Though I have had Open House on Christmas Eve for years to which neighbors were invited, I have stopped doing this after 41 years because I just got too old and tired to put that much effort on top of the rest that goes into the Holiday season. However, neighbors are picking up the ball. Because, by chance, I was at another neighbor's house two summers ago, I met the neighbor on her other side (actually facing another street) whom I never would have met. Through her, I have met many of her friends and neighbors and we will go caroling in the area in a few days. It feels so much better to live in an area where you recognize people and can ask them how they are and know that they are pleased to know you and converse.
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