2023
May
02
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

May 02, 2023
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When I was 6, I found independence in journeys to my grandfather’s house, two blocks away. I would hop on my bike and head over for a mini Horizon chocolate milk.

My brothers and I called him Dad-dad, and so did our friends. We knew we could stop by anytime for a treat, or for tea and cookies at 4 p.m. An accomplished woodworker, he finished an eave in his attic, intuiting correctly that it was a perfect space for forts.

“We knew we had a haven there,” said my brother Sam. “And a lot of goodies.”

Sam and a friend, Olivia, said nearly identical things when I asked about memories of neighborliness in Silver Spring, Maryland: “I was always being sent to a neighbor’s to borrow ingredients” and “there was not a day that we were not outside.”

I cherish these memories, but what I cherish most is my grandfather’s curiosity and openness, and his joy to see children knock at the door, whether they were his grandkids or not. In the years since, friends have told me they would stop by Dad-dad’s even without me.

It’s explained by both privilege and a different era that my brothers and our friends were free to play tag across an entire block’s worth of yards, or knock on doors without thinking twice. And while that environment of trust isn’t one the majority of Americans enjoy, it is one many are trying to cultivate.

Michael Dolan, author of a book on porches, invited me not only onto his porch, but also into his living room to discuss today’s story on porch culture. I had a very different experience door-knocking near my old neighborhood, where the few people who did answer the door were standoffish and curt. No one is obligated to talk to a reporter, but it is strange to live in a time where we regard anyone on our front step with suspicion.

As Mr. Dolan explained to me, a culture of neighborliness is inseparable from one where people feel safe. My grandfather had a wide-open heart for the humanity in everyone, and that made kids and adults feel comfortable with him. That was his strength, and I’m starting to think it’s also the key to neighborliness.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Story Hinckley/The Christian Science Monitor
Nikki Haley speaks to voters at the "Women for Nikki" launch event in Des Moines, Iowa, April 11, 2023.
Sophie Hills/The Christian Science Monitor
People gather in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington to watch one of 100 performances during PorchFest on April 29, 2023.
Courtesy of The Dream Journey
The Dream Journey team visits classical musicians in their homes and posts recordings of their music onto YouTube. Their next listening tour is planned for late 2023.

The Monitor's View

Reuters
Zamzam Adam, a Sudanese woman who says she gave birth while fleeing the violence in her country, holds her baby among her belongings near the border in Koufroun, Chad, April 27.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

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Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters
A man sits in a digger's bucket in an agricultural field near Hrakove, Ukraine, from which he operates a demining machine (not pictured) created by Oleksandr Kryvtsov, a general manager at a local agricultural company. Mr. Kryvtsov retrofitted a tractor with armored plates from destroyed Russian military vehicles to clear land that was littered with mines by former Russian occupiers. He was motivated by the need to sow crops and the fact that professional deminers were too busy elsewhere. So far, he told Reuters, the protective armor has needed to be repaired, but the tractor continues to work and no one has been injured.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Please come back tomorrow, when we’ll have a review of a probing spiritual memoir, “Curveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming,” by Peter Enns.

More issues

2023
May
02
Tuesday
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