There is an old saying in China: “A distant relative is not as good as a near neighbor". The means that when you are in trouble, the person who is most helpful to you is your neighbor, not your family. This is true.

We really cherish the memory of enjoying the time we spent in the collective apartment forty years ago. Dozens of families lived together in a collective apartment. Each floor has only a public kitchen and a public toilet. If you couldn't occupy a spot to set your gas stove in the kitchen, you have to cook in the corridor. The whole apartment building would be full of oil smoke every time you cook, but soon you will smell food instead. Everyone knows what other families will eat. Everyone is exchanging experiences in cooking and tasting other people’s dishes as well. The adults are speaking and laughing, the children are playing and are being noisy. The news and gossiping are mixing with the noise of cooking… All of these formed an accord picture. These people are teachers in the college. They are models for others and they have elegant manners in public areas. But when they come back home, they will return back to their roles, who work hard for their livelihood soon. In the collective apartment, the people whose families has trouble such as someone getting ill, husband and wife quarrel, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law discord... All neighbors would help. At that time, although the material life is not rich enough, there is no lack of warmth and care on the spiritual level.

Afterward, the people in the collective apartment become less and less. At last all of them move into some newly built apartment. Now people dwell in their own apartments. People who come back home from outside need to pass four doors. The first door is the district's gate which divide us from the society. The second door is unit's gate which separate us from other units. The third door is elevator door which separate us from other floors. The last door is our own apartment gate. We insulate ourselves when our gate is closed. We are alone in the apartment besides bright windows, spacious living room and bedrooms, perfect furniture and comfortable beds. We almost have no concept of neighbors. We only know someone lives next to our door either a man or a woman. We almost don't know most of our neighbors.

Someone says that this is a kind of a society's progress. But this kind of progress turns us into seclusion or solidarity, especially when we are aware that we are getting old more and more,  these feelings are getting stronger and stronger. We want to get more interests of the society's progress, but we don't want to be alone. We need communication and help from society and people.

Corrected by Teacher Chawee