Love Thy Neighbor?

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that someone important suggested (maybe commanded) I love my neighbor as I love myself. Something to that effect. I believe in that. It's sensible, thoughtful, and healthy.

However.

My next door neighbor's dog is barking outside. This is not unusual. It's almost noon, so that's better than when he barks from six to six-thirty in the morning or eleven-thirty to midnight. Still, it has been ten minutes of the dog barking at passing people, dogs, and sometimes cars and leaves. The bark is deep and strong. Were I a good person, I'd think of him as Walt Whitman sounding his barbaric yawp across the rooftops of the world.

I just think he's a pain in the ass.

I suppose I sound mean and petty. (I can play that role.) For several years I've not loved or even liked my neighbor. I don't hate her, so there's that at least. And just so I come off a little better, I blame the dog's faults on the neighbor. A dog doesn't know any better.

I like dogs. We have one, but she hardly barks. The two exceptions are the single bark to let us know she's ready to come in from the yard and a few seconds of bat-shit crazy barking when the little dog in the house above ours goes off. Our dog sprints up the hill to the fence, they bark like mad, then they settle in for wagging and smelling.

I don't mind that little dog, but I don't. He used to bark a lot, but I knocked on their door and asked "do you think you could bring him in when he barks?" They did. Since then, no problems. I love my neighbor as my dog loves theirs.

The next door neighbor won't change. I've asked. A couple times. Politely. But it doesn't occur to her that the barking is a problem. Some neighbors aren't on the same wave length of thoughtfulness.

None of this is the end of the world or cause for hatred, but I don't much love my neighbor. Not that one at least.

Still, today when she walks her dog, I'll say hello from a safe distance and ask how she's doing. It's the neighborly thing to do and right now we need as much of that as we can muster.

Woof-woof.