A neighborhood gains something when people can ask for a small favor without feeling they have become a burden.

Small requests are what actually hold a street together. A borrowed ladder, a parcel taken in, a ride to the station. When asking costs a person standing, the requests stop, and everyone ends up buying, hiring or doing without things a neighbor two doors down has spare. The loss is not only practical, since a place where nobody asks is a place where nobody quite knows anybody.

Ask for something small this month, even if you could manage without it. When somebody asks you, say yes easily and skip the ceremony of gratitude afterward. Making the exchange ordinary is what keeps the door open in both directions.