The One Thing I Can Change About My Neighborhood: My Attitude

There is an old story told by minister Harry Emerson Fosdick about an experience he had as a boy growing up in New York.

His mother sent him outside to pick a quart of raspberries. He didn’t want to do it. He approached the chore reluctantly, and that container seemed to fill painfully slowly.

Then he changed the challenge in his mind. Instead of picking the quart his mother requested, he decided to surprise her by picking two quarts.

Suddenly, everything changed.

The raspberries hadn’t changed. The chore hadn’t changed. The amount of time he had hadn’t changed. His mother hadn’t changed.

His attitude changed.

I’ve been thinking about that story because I believe it applies to how we approach our neighborhoods and communities.

It is easy to look around and focus on everything that needs to change. We want local government to do more. We wish people volunteered more. We complain that nobody knows their neighbors. We wonder why someone doesn’t organize an event, clean up the park, welcome the new family, help the elderly neighbor or bring people together.

Eventually, I have to ask a different question: What if the first thing that needs to change is my attitude? Instead of asking, “Why doesn’t somebody do something?” I can ask, “What can I do?”

That small change moves me from critic to contributor.

A neighborhood looks different when I stop seeing the people around me as strangers and start seeing them as neighbors worth knowing. Community service feels different when I stop viewing it as another demand on my time and begin seeing it as an opportunity to make someone’s life better.

The circumstances haven’t changed but my  attitude has and that makes the difference!

That is one reason I believe neighboring is such a powerful form of community service. It doesn’t require a committee, a program or a large budget. I can learn someone’s name. Check on an older neighbor. Pick up trash while walking. Welcome someone new. Share vegetables from my garden. Invite neighbors onto the driveway. Offer help before someone has to ask.

None of those actions will solve every problem facing my community. But they change something. They change relationships. They build trust. They create belonging. And they often inspire someone else to contribute.

We spend a lot of time wishing our communities were friendlier, safer, more connected and more caring. Those are worthy goals.

But perhaps we should spend less time waiting for our community to change and more time changing our attitude toward our community.

The neighborhood is still the neighborhood. The work is still the work. But when my attitude changes from “someone should” to “I will,” community begins to change too.

WRITTEN BY

David L. Burton

For more information, visit the Engaged Neighbor website. Take our pledge and become part of a movement! Or subscribe to our newsletter. Access some of the research documents written by David Burton, the author of this blog. Or better yet, purchase one of his books off Amazon. Contact David L. Burton via email at dburton541@yahoo.