Love Thy Neighbour ... He said.

I have yet to understand what Jesus meant when He said, "Love Thy Neighbour".

I mean, does the man who lives a few streets down the road, just round the corner by the shops, about a quarter of a mile from my house, my neighbour or not?

I see him every now and then, and he makes an inane comment like, "turned out nice today",  or "it's raining cats and dogs again", and I nod politely in agreement with a smile. Personally, I find him boring. But should I really love him? He lives too far to be my neighbour; so can I ignore him? I don't like boring people. Although I guess God loves them seeing He created so many. Perhaps He created boring people so that we may appreciate the interesting ones.

How about you? Do you have good neighbours? Or are they nosey ones? Or noisy ones for that matter.

Are you a good neighbour?

I think I am. Last Christmas we had a party in our house. Many friends and relatives turned up. I remembered an old lady living a few houses down the road. She lives alone. You could call her my neighbour because she does not live far. With the party in full swing I went out to her house and asked to borrow some chairs. She refused. What a selfish neighbour she was. And at Christmas too!

When I lived in London we had nosey neighbours. They were always looking at us from their house which overlooked ours. Whenever we were in the garden they were at their window looking at us. It was unnerving.

I did not want to hang our clothes out to dry because I did not want them to see my underwear. I think underwear are private, don't you? They should not be seen whether you are in them or not. And if you are not in them then it is more rude because you're standing there with no underwear.

Also, I did not want our clothes hanging out on the line in case they crapped all over them. I mean the birds ... not the neighbours! How could the neighbours crap on our washing from their window? That would have been an all powerful mighty flying crap!

In the part of London where we lived it was prohibited to hang your washing on a line if it was visible from the street. I checked the local by-laws. It said nothing about the neighbours watching our washing from their window and seeing what kind of underwear I wear. Or crapping on them, for that matter.

The whole situation got embarrassing because I did not want to tell them to stop looking at my underpants in case they got the wrong idea. Also, I did not want them to know that I saw them looking out of their window at my underpants.

So I said nothing and they continued looking at my underpants. Until one day we stopped hanging our washing out on the line.

My wife suggested we hang our clothes as normal but not my underpants.

I refused, because then the neighbours would think that I wear no underpants.

What is worse do you think? Them seeing my underpants on the washing line, or them thinking I wear no underpants?

And it wasn't just the washing line I was concerned about. In that house in London we had a small swimming pool in the back garden. A heated pool no less.

I got so self-conscious going out in the pool or to sunbathe in case they saw what swimming trunks I was wearing. I shan't ask you what is worse, them seeing me in my swimming trunks or with no trunks at all.

What do you think?