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It takes just one person in the dark to turn on a light. This means that each of us has the power to make small changes in society if we can get outside ourselves, help others, step in their shoes, dig down, and pull up our empathy genes. However, this kind of sharing is being shoved aside more and more to make room for a new phenomenon in today’s “sharing economy,” focusing on self—me, me, me. It seems to be going viral in our new virtual world where we all get to be a critic, a maven, a news maker,...

It was similar to having several windows open simultaneously on a computer screen when in the course of a few months, a childhood friend called to tell me her husband was having major surgery, another long-time friend told me her spouse had a sudden fatal heart attack, and a former neighbor called crying to share that her husband walked out on her and was filing for divorce. How do you react when someone you are close to faces a crisis? Ignore it because you don’t want to feel that you’re being intrusive? Offer help? And what does help exactly mean?...

You’re tired of staying in overpriced, impersonal hotels and dislike sharing breakfast with strangers at inns and B&Bs. It’s time to consider being a renter of a house or condo you find on one of the increasing number of home sites available. It’s also a great way to gather family and be able to prepare all or some of your meals in a much more spacious setting. Here’s what I found as I booked places in Italy, Maryland, and the North Fork of Long Island. Check out all properties carefully and study to see if the one you like has the...

Friends might cringe at the thought of sharing their beds, towels, couches, and more, but I found quite by accident that it’s an excellent way to earn some extra cash. My secrets to success (most of the time) have been to vet the renter as well as I can, remove valuables I didn’t want shared or pilfered (such as silver and jewelry), leave some house rules via email or printed instructions, be kind, take a big deposit, and pray hard that the person doesn’t plan to stay, as one renter did according to news reports and caused a legal snafu....

The sharing economy has hit my neighborhood, and it may hit yours, too. Notice strangers in your neighbors’ driveway? They just may be renters from online sites that offer visitors a chance to experience what it’s really like to live in Boston! Highland Park, Ill.! Santa Monica, Calif.! rather than stay in less personal hotels, inns, and B&Bs. I never pictured myself as Mary Frann, Bob Newhart’s wife in the ’70s sitcom, Newhart, in which he played an innkeeper in a bucolic Vermont village, and she was his right hand. While I love having guests stay in my house, eat my...