Distant Neighbors, and Other Insights

A discussion with a friend reminded me of one of the best essays I ever published, Amanda Witt’s Distant Neighbors. Also very good is her longer essay Remember Who You Are and the shorter essay Life Worth Giving.

“Distant Neighbors” begins:

Early one Saturday morning the doorbell rang. It was a young girl — taller than I am, heavily built, but still a young girl. “Last night we moved in across the street,” she said. “And I’ve heard you have a daughter my age. Can she come out to play?”

I called my eleven-year-old daughter, and she and one of our sons — the seven-year-old — went out to meet the new neighbor. They played with her all morning, building a fort and planning a club, and at lunchtime she asked if she could eat with us, “because we don’t have any food in the house yet.”

“Sure,” I said, and made burritos. After lunch the kids went back out to play some more, but within a few minutes my two came bursting back in, looking bewildered and upset.

The seven-year-old had learned a new word. “Her mother is a lesbian!” he announced.