Like A Good Neighbor...

You know the jingle.  But I'm not going to talk insurance today.  I want to know what a good neighbor is.

On the surface a good neighbor might be the one that mows their lawn, keeps the yard relatively neat and is somewhat friendly.  Someone who waves as you back the car out of the driveway.  Hopefully you know his or her name.

But is that really a good neighbor?  Everyone wants a neighbor who keeps their property somewhat well maintained. I mean, who wants to look at a POD in someone's driveway for weeks.(If you don't know what a POD is, then you are lucky!  Just Google it and see if you'd like to be staring at one for any extended period of time.)  But there's more to a good neighbor than that.

I don't think you have to be friends in order to be good neighbors (although it certainly helps).  A good neighbor is not only there physically, but there to help out.  I consider myself pretty lucky when it comes to neighbors (although we've all had our share of not so good ones haven't we?).  So I'd like to share with you some examples of what good, no let me make that great neighbors are (without naming names...although if you are a neighbor, you might know who  you are.).

• The person who comes to your front door BEFORE he starts mowing his lawn because he knows you have  newborn in the house and doesn't want to disturb the baby.
• The one who realizes you are struggling with chopping through the ice and comes and helps you break it up.  Or who takes his/her snow blower up and down the entire block making it easier for everyone on the street to deal with snow removal.
• The ones who just suddenly show up at your front door when there is a death in the family and just sit with you, even if they didn't really know the family member that died.
• The one who volunteers to help out with childcare, even before you realize that you're going to need it.

As I said, I've been mostly very lucky.  I have some GREAT neighbors.  In many ways they have helped care for me (and for my family).  I hope I have been there for them, as they have been for me.

And as for the not so good neighbors...well, I'm going to count my blessings and say that the good outweighs the bad.  Everyone has to deal with not so good neighbors, but if you've got more good than not so good, well then you've come out on top.   For me, I'd like to think I've pretty much got the cream of the crop.