Walls are interesting things, and, I will be the first to say, quite important. For example, in your house, it is difficult to really function without some kind of division, and walls do quite quite well. Walls vary in materials all over the world — there are brick walls, cloth walls, drywall walls, and mud walls… many, many kinds of walls. Some of these walls are for protection, some for privacy, and some to give space, definition, and purpose. They all have one thing in common though: they separate things. The Great Wall of China is an excellent example. This physical wall kept people on both sides separated… it was a very literal wall. The Iron Curtain, on the other hand, was more of a metaphorical wall. For approximately 35 years people believed in this wall. Believing in it made it a wall of the mind, which perhaps was even more powerful than a tangible one. Walls of the mind are the hardest to break through, and quite often are too tall to climb over.

Walls can be positive or negative aspects of our lives, but usually it is we who decide what purpose they will serve. Whatever our culture, we learn to live within the walls and definitions of our society. In family groups we have further boundaries, and then there are friendships and work places. There are also religious boundaries, governmental, and institutional. When you begin to look at the amount of walls around you, you suddenly realize… it’s a maze. What walls really belong to you? Which ones are really of your own choosing? How did you come to choose these walls? Most people live within a maze of walls they were merely born into, a path that will never truly be of their own making. On rare occasion though, some will come to consciousness and realize their condition. Many however simply do not have the capacity. They crave to be led and guided, and told what to do; it is their purpose they feel, to be a slave to a greater power. It is one thing to follow, but another to follow in ignorance. Bring the walls of ignorance down, the walls of brainwashing media, political and sociological… just question them all. The only real authority that can decide your walls for you… is you. Metaphorical walls only exist because we believe in them.

Tags: wall, walls, boundaries, borders