But I would paint a different picture of modern neighbourliness.
I'm friendly with the folks next door in our tightly-packed suburb. We share keys, tools and produce. We feed pets, supply ingredients, collect mail and take emptied bins in on windy rubbish days.
We've nipped the odd bit of washing in/out for each other. Traditions of yore continue.
But with modern times come new methods of being a good neighbour.
We share door security codes and post security camera footage of dodgy-seeming strangers in our neighbourhood Facebook chat.
We rescue each other's Roombas (robot vacuums) when they get stuck on a "ledge" mid-clean.
We've worked out signals for a sleeping baby so mowers aren't started or dogs allowed to go off barking under that window.
We've swapped meal-kit deliveries and routinely take in packages before thieves spot them.
If anything, I think the close quarters make us be more thoughtful and communicative with the people next door.
Technology enables a lot of this and high fences don't necessarily mean we have walls up.
The global situation is similar. Technology has made the world seem smaller and more connected, even when we haven't been able to travel freely.
Today, we find out a date for a transtasman travel bubble with our favourite neighbours.
It's hard to predict whether this will be a near date or a far date, but if it's the latter, we need to know a lot more from the respective Governments about what the hold-up is, so we can hold the correct authorities to account. Is it vaccination spread? Contact tracing deficiencies? Too many break-outs?
There has been a dearth of information, in my opinion, about exactly what hoops - reasonable as they may be - we must jump through to get this over the line.
Stakes are high, but as good neighbours we need to get everyone on the same page and get this done right.
We cannot stay cloistered behind closed borders forever.
