Walls

Along any country mile one is bound to see a wall or two dotting the landscape. Many of these walls mark a property line while others have another, less known, purpose for being built into existence, one we may never know. My Grandfather always said, never take down a wall until you can figure out why it was put there in the first place. Even as a child, I wondered why it was that the area trapped inside was always smaller than the everything beyond the enclosure.

The defintion of space, the territorial stance of "this is mine, not yours" happens the moment we exit the womb and take our breath sans the aquatic environment of our mothers. Independently, with our own lungs, we suck in the air claiming the oxygen it possesses as our own, belonging to us and no other. It is natural to set up boundaries and stake ownership. It is a matter of survival. The interesting thing one notices about country walls though, is their height. Somewhere along the history of things people realized that even though boundaries had to be set to maintain peace, they also had to be able to reach over the walls to trade, to barter, to share, to communicate and learn about eachother's existence. Civilization cannot advance and we as people cannot grow completely closed off from the everything beyond our enclosures