I grew up loving Sesame Street. Loved it. It helped teach me how to count, how to identify colors, brush my teeth and most of all to appreciate the fact that not all monsters are nasty…some love cookies.
There is one Sesame Street song in particular that still floats around in my mind to this day, perhaps you know it. It goes something like this, “Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood, in you neigh - bor -hood - oh!”
Not all that long ago, if one were to answer the question posed in that familiar song your list would include all the folks on your street, maybe a mailman, the trash guy, etc. You know, the people whose business you know, whose lives you can observe and who - if you want - you can interact with, talk to, and serve. Right?
I’ve blogged about this before, but in our digital, media saturated age the definition of neighbor is now widely expanded. I can now observe the lives of, interact with, and be concerned about almost anyone at any time. In other words, the whole world is now my neighbor.
Jesus talked a ton about neighbors. In fact, he boiled down all of Christian spirituality and living to two things: Love your God and love your neighbor as yourself. That’s it. In other words, real Christian spirituality is a life of care, concern, and service for those whose life I can observe or interact with.
Now, I’m not the kind of dude that watches Entertainment Tonight but even I cannot escape the buzz surrounding the massive meltdown of Britney Spears. Shaved head, rehab, loss of custody, and now she’s apparently speaking with a British accent…and she’s from Georgia. And believe it or not, she is my struggling neighbor. I can peer over her fence, look at her life - I can even try and interact with her. I can email her, she could find this blog. Who knows?
She is the 21st century equivalent of the lady down the street who kinda lost it, bought 77 cats, and painted her house purple while the whole neighborhood just watched.
So, what does this mean? I have a few choices. I can be a good neighbor or a bad neighbor. I can watch and gossip, watch and laugh, watch and try to convince myself that I am concerned when in reality I am just trying to fill my sinful desire to feast on someone elses pain; or I can just say, “Eh, not my problem.” Bad neighbor. Or, I can act in mercy and concern. I can remember her in a prayer, I can turn off the garbage that is prostituting her pain in an effort to make money; and if I actually live next door to her (and someone out there does) I can send a note, bake some cookies, or offer to listen. Good neighbor.
Britney is struggling. I know this not because I want to, but because she’s my neighbor. May we be good ones.
Now, I know that not everyone agrees with me on this. There are some who think that because she has put herself out there as a product in her career, that we can observe her, look, laugh, etc without any moral obligation. But that just doesn’t jibe with me.
What are your thoughts? Do we, as Christians, have any moral obligations to those we see on the screen or in the magazines?
January 10th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Hey, I was going to blog on that last week when there were rumors she was going to literally become my neighbor by moving to North Cherry Creek which is just about a mile or so from my house. Of course, I was a slacker and it proved to be just rumors so I didn’t. Thanks for reminding us to love all our neighbors!
January 14th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Mental illness in itself consumes an entire family; not just the one suffering. It has long been misunderstood and often ignored, perhaps out of ignorance or just to keep it from touching us personally. To see her exploided in this way and her brokeness exposed publicly is no different than when the prostitute was dragged before Christ for judgement. He said “those of you without sin be the first to cast a stone”. I agree with you Matt we should pray. If only we could see the tears the Lord has shed not only for Brittney but for us in our apathy.
January 23rd, 2008 at 5:18 pm
DITTO!!! I have been wanting to write a blog about this for awhile now and I am so glad you did it! The way the media plays on her is crazy. We all need to remember her, her family and her children in our prayers, that could be any one of us going through the same struggles. Thank you for writing this and thank you to all the people who pray for Britney!
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:31 pm
I dont think its right to gossip about as well. I’m also glad you wrote on this. I just came to your blog to check it out. Its nice to get a reminder on life and our brothers and sisters around us. We have the best neighbors in the world (i know everyone is our neighbor..lol). They dont speak a word of english, but anytime we are working in the front yard they drop whatever they are doing and roll up their sleaves to help. Even if they are in a suit. They always give us a wave and a smile. Thanks Matt for reminding us of that we are all human and need love and comfort.
Hugs,
February 4th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I’m really glad that you mentioned this. I’ve been thinking about it a lot…mostly because it’s constantly in my face, even on the evening news.. And I too, have been guilty of gossiping about her lifestyle and life choices…It was my resolution this year to stay away from the coaxing US Weekly Magazine’s in the line at the Supermarket, but the gossip tends to find you..even when you’re channel surfing. Thanks for the reminder. And you know what, if all of my dirty laundry was under total observation…people would probably think I was crazy too.
February 4th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I think it was kind of you to write your words regarding Britney. She has won the hearts of so many because we have watched her grow up. Her popularity is because we hate to see people that are so talented screw it up with drugs, money, and bad choices.
What’s interesting though is that our own neighbors could certainly be going through the same thing, but we might never know. We truly live in a society in which we know more about someone like Spears (who we’ll probably never meet) than people that literally live down the street. It’s quite ironic, but it’s the world we live in.
I love your perception on things Matt!! Keep up the good work…and sparking thoughts and compassion in everyone’s heart! I’m going to try to be more neighborly because of your blog!!!!