Love Your Neighbour

[poliphilo]

 Damian the builder rings Ailz early morning to say he's at the house of the mother of his next door neighbour (for whom he's doing some carpentry) and he's found her on the floor and would I run across the road and tell the guy because Damian has our number and not his. It takes me a moment or two to work out exactly what's going on and exactly what I'm supposed to be doing- and then I do it. 

I like being a neighbour and part of a network of neighbourliness. We had a bit of this going on in Oldham but nothing like we have here...

I think neighbourliness is the future. Small tight communities, increasingly self-sufficient. You want to change the world? The best place to start is where you live...

Comments

[cmcmck]

We find that small town living has huge advantages in this respect.

[poliphilo]

That's true. I wouldn't- at this stage of my life- want to live in a big city.

[bleodswean]

Exactly this. I've long believed that the world wide web became a village that simply can't work because of the size, the impersonal aspect of it which causes the individual to become more isolated rather than community aware, and the fact that so many human beings misrepresent themselves when they can't be found out. It's time, the time has now arrived, for us to step outside the front door and reconnect with true village and recreate true community. I'm happy to hear that's happening for you there. Hope the mother was okay!

[poliphilo]

I love the World Wide Web, but we're physical beings and we have a need for physical community. My friends on the other side of the Atlantic are important to me- but I can't go and borrow a cup of sugar off them...