Neighbors

The Bible commands us to love our neighbors but it seems like these days no one even knows their neighbor. We live in a small little apartment community and by small I mean there are 5 apartments. We've lived here since October and I think I could give you the first name of 3 of the 8 other people that we share a small driveway with. One of their names I only know because their significant other left a Valentine's day card in front of their door (which is right next to my door.)

I have to admit, I think that's pretty sad.

I live not too far from Charlotte, there are a lot of subdivisions around here, houses pretty much stacked on top of the house next to it, with little to no yard between them, and I just wonder how many of these people actually KNOW the people who live less than 10 feet from their house. They may know their names, but do they know them? Do they talk with them? Have coffee together? what about picnics?

When we lived in Tennessee we lived in a duplex, we got to know our neighbor quite well, He was a single guy (for most of the time, he got married shortly before we moved here). My husband and him would often talk, we were close enough to trust them with a key to our house when we went out of town, close enough that we'd bring eachother's garbage cans in from the curb. Close enough that when he got married I often found myself over at his apartment, working out with his wife, or sitting on the front porch talking. It was a lot of fun to actually know my neighbor.

It reminded me of when I was little, we knew all our neighbors, I'd go to their house, we'd make food for them when they were sick, they'd buy stuff from me when our school was selling things. For a little while I had a little taste of what it used to be like. Those were the days when no one needed a burglar alarm, their neighbors WERE the burglar alarm. They knew who went in and out of the houses on a regular basis, they watched over each other's houses while one was away.

I actually got a taste of that when we lived in that duplex. I was home one day and heard a lot of banging next door. My husband and I had one car, so when he was at work it was impossible to know if I was home or not. Our neighbor was at work so I found it odd to hear so much noise coming from his apartment. I glanced out the front window and didn't see his car, so I decided to go out our back door and peek around the corner. I honestly thought I was imagining things- I have a tenancy to do that.

So I was honestly shocked when I walked around the corner to his back door and saw strange men loading his guitars and other stuff in their car. So shocked all I did was said "What are you doing?!" Now, I don't honestly recommend confronting people when they are breaking into a house, it wasn't the smartest thing I've done, and honestly about the time my feet hit the inside of my apartment and my door closed a list of about 100 other things that I should have said came to my head. Things like "Oh, you must be fixing the fridge, he told me you'd be stopping by" Anything to make them think I wasn't running back into my apartment to call the cops.

But no, not me, I made it very obvious. I was shaking in my boots while I called peeking out my front window to try to get a better look at the car as it pulled out of the driveway. I called my neighbor and that was one of the most awkward calls I've ever made, it's no fun to tell someone you're close to that you just watched a couple guys carry away a couple thousand of dollars worth of musical equipment. The Police eventually showed up, but even despite my descriptions of their cars and the guys I don't think they ever found the burglars.

Despite the fact that I couldn't stop the men, I know my neighbor was grateful that I was close enough to pay attention to things at his house. I was a good old fashioned burglar alarm.