Make Haste for a Neighborhood Barbecue

In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, the most important people who can save your life are right next door.  Do you know their names?  Do you know your neighbors?  

All disasters are local even in this era of globalization.   Adult children in California and Minnesota and best friends in Florida can’t help right away if you live in Boston.  You must count on your neighbors to call an ambulance if you can’t, to take you in if your house is on fire, to pull you out of the rising waters.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, people counted on their neighbors when the lights went out and the phones cut off.   Neighbors shared water, wine and food, even boats, long before rescue crews could reach them.

Do you know your neighbors?   Too many people don’t.   For whatever reason, too busy at work,  whatever, they’ve become disconnected from their physical and geographical community and the people right next door.

Neighbors helping neighbors was essential on the frontier because they were so few.  It’s more important today because we are so many.  

The only real safety in the world is to know and be known by those around us.   When neighbors know each other by first name, it’s much easier to ask for and to give help and there is nothing is better than the helping hand of a neighbor.

“Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind,"  wrote Henri Frederic Amiel.

Life is short and sometimes dark so let’s make haste, light up the barbecue and invite the neighbors over.

It’s National Neighborhood Day, the second Sunday in September which this year falls on September 11.     Time to get to know our neighbors.   Time to deepen friendships with the people we will depend on and who will depend on us.  Time to exchange phone numbers and emergency contacts and to learn what special skills each of you have you can contribute in an emergency.  Time to plant the seeds of trust.

Lorne Adrain who owns an insurance and estate planning business in Providence, R.I. has made the neighborhood barbecue a national affair.   BusinessWeek reports:

Four years ago, when he fired up his grill for a block party in his East Side Providence neighborhood, it led to shared garden tools, a baby-sitter phone tree, even a key exchange. "We built trust," recalls Adrain, 51. Since then he has had surprising success spreading the simple idea of using barbecues to promote community involvement. He conspired with Harvard Business School classmates to create National Neighborhood Day on the second Sunday in September (Sept. 11 in 2005). His Web site (neighborhoodday.org) has downloadable invitations and party postings.

Have fun, build trust, get to know your neighbors - sounds like a good plan.