Last night the winds blew mightily—enough to uproot a 50-foot tree in our backyard, which managed to crash through our fence and completely block our neighbor’s driveway. Faced with such an inconvenience, my neighbor had every right to ask me what the heck I was going to do about this—at eight o’clock Saturday night—so that he could regain access to his house. Instead he turned his car around, bought a chain saw, set up a portable light, took his trailer out of the garage and immediately went to work. I had to race outside to keep up with him or he might have done the whole thing himself.
It was a great lesson in neighborliness, the kind that is often lost in this day and age. And I am reminded of the era of barn-raisings, when entire communities would gather together to assist one another. Christmas cards are nice. A plate of cookies now and then is even better. But there’s nothing like working together to create ties that bind.
I’ll miss that tree, but always fondly remember the experience. And with apologies to Robert Frost, sometimes broken fences make good neighbors.
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