In The Neighborhood: The Search For Community On An American Street, One Sleepover At A Time by Peter Lovenheim reads like an appreciative personal essay, one where the reader learns quite a lot about the writer’s feelings/thoughts as well as the topic being written about.
In writing this book, in chronicling this journey, the author not only achieved a neighborly circle of his own in which to share lives together, but he shows clearly that most people want to know their neighbors–they just don’t know where to start, for putting yourself out there is a risky move.
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Quotes from the book:
Most folks truly want “…to live among others with a sense of common humanity, expressed through a willingness to know and be known…”
…”neighborliness: it means to be responsible for each other…you’re my neighbor and I’ll do anything to help you…not just in times of crisis but everyday and to affirmatively offer that help. And you have to reach out to your neighbor, to know the rhythm of your neighbor’s life enough to know when something is wrong…However, I’m not sure these days many people are interested in knowing another person that well…”
…”There’s talk today about how, as a society, we’ve become fragmented by income, ethnicity, city vs. suburb, red state vs. blue… But we also divide ourselves with invisible dotted lines. I’m talking about the property lines that isolate us from the people we are physically closest to: our neighbors.”
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This book resonated with me. Not just in the sense of a physical neighborhood, but with making connections overall. Connecting meaningfully with folks in daily life is an intentional pursuit of mine. I firmly believe we’re on this planet to support and love one another. Those who scoff at such, I am truly sorry for whatever events have happened in life to make you feel that way and I hope you’ll work to overcome such–I still unwaveringly believe that we’re all in this together, that our actions every one are a fiber in the fabric of life, of lives we share paths with.
In The Neighborhood is a humorous as well as thought-provoking book about real life–now go talk to your closest neighbor, have a cup o’ coffee/glass o’ tea, start something!
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**my thanks to the Penguin Group for my complimentary copy of this book, there were no strings attached. I blogged my enjoyment in order to share this book with folks ’cause that’s what I do!**