Articles

Neighbor or Nearby That Is Not the Question

By Mark Antony Rossi

I grew up in a city with thriving colorful neighborhoods which included people called neighbors. My animated parents knew everyone on the block and so did I. As I reflect to those simpler days I question if the oversaturation of television has divided people to the point of near anonymity. What ever happened to the neighbors?

I started noticing while in high school that people knew less about each other. I found it strange when speaking to a new student and discovering he lived right next to a new friend. I didn’t make the connection. But people came outside less and less. Block parties became a thing of the past. I received several invitations to homes of friends to watch a television show.

Even back then I felt the invitations were odd. I murmured to myself “you can’t watch this junk on your own time.” Whenever I had a moment free from chores and homework I wanted to go outside and explore. I liked finding coins with my metal detector or trading baseball cards on smooth stone staircases. Anything but being locked up again watching a boring boob-tube performance. After all we were daytime prisoners of public school dreaming of running far away.

I have owned two homes in my adult lifetime and sadly each instance I was stuck in home owner association neighborhoods where people more concerned about your weeds than your needs. No one comes out and talks to you because either they are stuck in their own little cliques or satellite television is more interesting than the new family next door. These are not neighbors they are nearby — they live nearby me– but apart from that, no one really cares.

Neighbor or nearby that is not the question preoccupying my time. For there is no guarantee the most neighborly person is nothing more than rumor-mongering pain in the neck. No promise their freaky habits will keep up at night. But I’d rather the risk of making a friend than having another stranger staring at my lawn trying to get me in trouble.

About the Author: Mark Antony Rossi is a poet, playwright and author of the bioethics volume “Dark Tech” now available from Amazon. His most recent plays have been produced in Liverpool and New York.

http://ethical-stranger.webnode.com/ 

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