Hi, Neighbors!
The people who live in our neighborhood make up the community to which we belong. If you’re lucky, you appreciate your neighbors, you get along with them, you might even consider them your friends. Good neighbors are there to play with, to lend us things, to give us advice, and to get our mail in when we’re on vacation. Today we celebrate the people in our communities. Happy Good Neighbor Day!
It’s truly great to have good neighbors that you can count on which is why it’s important to recognize the two-way street of neighborliness. Good neighbors beget good neighbors so the more neighborly you are to the people around you, the more neighborly they’ll be in turn. After all, why should your neighbor lend you their lawn mower if you wouldn’t give them a cup of sugar the other day?
I know when I was growing up, we were incredibly close in particular with our next-door neighbor. We’d borrow and lend things without a second thought. Of course, because my dad had married the girl next-door, the next-door neighbor was my grandfather. I guess I REALLY lucked out with a neighbor who was MORE than just a neighbor…
But I’m not the only one who had such a lucky find! In fact, families are sort of how neighborhoods began. See, the first ‘neighborhoods’ that were formed, early in human history, were based on families sticking together. Extended families would all stay together in large numbers and move with the weather.
This was the case until people started farming on a significant scale. Such farming allowed people to occupy their time with things other than farming. They did other jobs, built cities, and settled down in communities and neighborhoods.
Things changed when cars and airplanes made traveling a simpler situation; families didn’t necessarily stick so close together anymore. That’s why it’s important to develop a relationship with the people in your neighborhood. You’re safe and supported when you know the people around you. Happy Good Neighbor Day! And thanks for reading.
- John