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September 23, 2007

Reflections on being neighborly in the country

I feel like I've been struck by lightening. After living in cities and suburbs and towns my whole life, I finally understand what it is to be a real neighbor when my closest neighbor is nearly 1/4 mile away.

We have neighbors right next door in town. I have always tried very hard to be neighborly - giving them tools to borrow, sugar, aspirin - trying to give their kids some time with the puppies and cats, but we rarely even got a thank you back from them.

Out at the farm, I have learned that people help each other. If you do someone a good turn, it does come back to you, a thousand times over. John saw that our neighbor's US Flag was getting old, so he gave Allan a new flag.

Allan noticed that I had broken the lawn mower, so he mowed our law.

Major needed pasture for his hoses, I needed help with all the work of getting this rather neglected farm back in shape - so we help each other out!

Allen, our contractor, needed some land to release quail and hunt them. He noticed that I need shingles for my chicken coop roof. He is bringing me shingles that he has handy, and John is going to let him hunt on our land.

And it is so, so easy to be neighborly out in the country. I don't dread hearing a car drive up the road. (If anyone is driving up the road we live on, they are coming to see us, because we are the ONLY people living there! (or almost living there)).

Here in town, it seems more of a one-way street with our neighbors. We give them all kinds of things, from jump starts at 5 am to letting them use our lawn mower every week. But after awhile, I feel a bit used - for they don't give anything in return.

Perhaps that is why welfare is so damned useless. We give to people who need help, but they have no opportunity to give back. And they should. It would be so much more neighborly, don't ya know?

Posted by Beth at September 23, 2007 7:34 AM