Our Good Neighbor

This morning I had two children sobbing in the backseat as we pulled away from our home.  The moving truck was in front of our dear neighbor's home, and the reality had set in that Mr. Mike was moving.  
As I tucked the children in tonight, my eldest prayed, "God, please help Mr. Mike sleep well in his new home.  He was the best neighbor ever..."
It made me ponder: What makes a "best neighbor"?  And why is it so difficult to get to know our neighbors?
For us, Mr. Mike has been the one who cheered at Little League games, knocked on our door with Easter baskets, Halloween candy and Christmas stockings for the children, thrown a ball with our son, eaten at our table, dropped us off at 4:30am at the airport, and taken the time to ask questions and care.  For him, I think, our children were sometimes the highlight of his day, and we were able to be there for him when he took a tumble off his ladder and ended up in the back of an ambulance.  After a decade of living across the street, we know his story, and he knows ours.  It didn't happen overnight, but we chiseled back the layers and discovered the journeys that had both brought us to this street.
However, on the contrary, our other neighbor who also has lived across the street for the past decade, well, her name is known but her garage door closes behind the car before the engine turns off.  Thus, we have failed to have one meaningful conversation in over 3,800 days we've been neighbors.  I don't know her story; she doesn't know mine.  
In my opinion, the pace and culture of our society at times does not nurture the reliance and interdependence with neighbors that may have been the case decades and centennials before, or that may organically occur in other cultures around the world.   When we lived in another culture, neighbors rely on each other for their very sustenance.  They are constantly sharing milk, sugar, flour, conversations, joys, tears and laughter.  Yet, here we are constantly on the move from one thing to the next, and rarely take those precious minutes in our own geographical territory to care for those around us.  I get it (because I'm guilty of it), but I think we had something special with Mr. Mike that on a grander scale should be more of a priority than a rarity.  
I think all of us long for neighbor friendships, for that smiling face and wave when we get near our driveway, and we were blessed enough to have one in Mr. Mike.  He said he'll stop by on Monday; my children will be waiting!