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January 3, 2006

Why we need neighbors

All too often neighbors tend to get on our nerves. Either by raking all their leaves into our yards or having their dog bark at all hours of the night, they just seem to cause hassle and stress into our quiet lives. It's understandable that often people want to have some quiet time and relax alone in the comforts of their own house. Nobody wants to be bothered during dinner by their neighbor who is selling cookies for girl scouts after all. Sometimes it seems that a world without neighbors would be the best possible life. Everyone being secluded to themselves up on a mountain or in a forest, like a permanent vacation or a sweet getaway spot after a hard day's work. Yes, finally people would just be able to relax. This utopian life may sound all sweet and dandy but a world without neighbors really wouldn't be like paradise as we all imagine. A neighbor is classified as a person who lives close to another person. In order to not have neighbors everyone would have to live in a one mile radius apart from each other. It doesn't sound too bad but think about how many people there are in the world. To round it off it's about, 6,446,131,400. Would the Earth have enough land to support all these people that need one miles worth of land? If not then many people would have to resort to inhabiting the uninhabitable. People would have to build houses on floating docks in the middle of the ocean and others would have to live in the freezing cold of the artic regions. Think of how dangerous life for people's families could be. Imagine a small toddler walking out the door and suddenly SPLASH, into the ocean he goes. Also what happens if a child is walking home from school and suddenly a blizzard forms around him/her, leaving this child cold in the wilderness. Life without neighbors might be nice and quiet but instead of barking dogs to worry about, there are sharks and polar bears to consider. If we did live out one mile from one another though, it would be a real pain for school buses (or school boats, or school sleds) to travel. Already with people living close to one another, it takes some children 45 minutes to get to their home. Imagine how it would be if each house was a mile apart. That time would maybe double or even triple. Schools will then be complaining about high gas prices and plead to the government for more funds. Gas prices already are not cheap so the government decides to raise taxes to support the school gas funds. Taxes are paid by citizens and they don't like it in the slightest causing them to be grumpy and bitter. All this because we don't have neighbors. So instead of relaxation all we get is more stress, not my idea of paradise. In a world without neighbors I fear that being alone may become too lonely for anyone to bear. Sure we might have family but sometimes family just isn't enough or they just tends to make things more aggravating and since the next point of civilization is a mile away, people feel trapped. So I ask you, without neighbors, who would we put on our child's information form as the emergency contact? Who will we go to if we need to borrow a cup of sugar? Who will we go to when we accidentally lock ourselves out of our home? Who will be there for us when we decide that we don't want to stay at our home anymore because we got into a fight with our spouse? Who will we steal wireless internet from by sitting out on the patio? Who will we call when we're sick and tired of living in a lonely house and want to talk? Surely everyone can agree that they'd rather walk across the lawn to get every one of these things instead of driving out a mile away. To conclude, I believe that neighbors are necessary in everyway from geologically, economically, or to just plain emotionally. Sometimes they do get on our nerves but really who doesn't anymore. Even people we don't know get on our nerves. Everyone tends to want life to be perfect but we got to realize that even our perfect little paradise has flaws. So I ask of you today to just appreciate what life has given us, even our neighbors, because without them I'm sure we'll miss them more then we realize.

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