Won’t You Be My Neighbor

Neighbor means adjacent. A fellow human.

In school, my teachers would often refer to the other students as our neighbor.

Mr. Rogers always asked us to be his neighbor. NOTE: I am not taking shots at Mr. Rogers.

It’s a cordial term. Friendly for some of us. But not the same as friend. Even colleague.

Neighbors we keep some distance from ourselves. Colleagues are brought in a little closer and we share a deeper level of us with them. A friend is much closer, we share, we bare, we take some armor off.

Do most of us have friends or colleagues? Or neighbors? Might not really know given that people are great actors.

For collaboration what’s more important? A colleague or a neighbor? Friends may be pushing it a little in many circumstances, but if you can collaborate with a friend, even better.

Collaboration is a deeper approach to work. Takes letting go of the armor a bit. Neighbors can be talked to at a good safe distance.