Fences

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The thing with fences is that I am always wondering whether they have been put up to keep something in, or rather to keep something out…

It is clear though that any fence marks a boundary; even if the fence is more of a gesture, for instance a low bar or hedge around a park or lawn. The taller and sturdier the fence is, the more clear the boundary gets to be. After all, ‘good fences make good neighbors’.
If a fence is accompanied by ‘posted’ signs, chances are that the intent is to keep people out. Yet a fence leading up to a cattle guard is likely to be put up to keep cattle in.

So rather than just any boundary, fences have that added quality of keeping people or animals where they belong. And as long as the particular fence is up to that task, we have a tendency to feel safe and secure.
In all reality, it is a good thing that a fence between the highway and the farmland on either side keeps the cattle from wandering into traffic; both for the sake of the drivers as well as for the sake of the cattle.

But there are also fences that raise questions.
Like why some people feel the need to cross boundaries of others, wandering into houses that are not theirs; taking things with them that they don’t own; unless they are stopped by tall barb-wire fences or any other, perhaps more sophisticated manner of security?
Or why we want to take animals out of their natural habitat and display them behind appropriate fences in zoos?
And perhaps the most intriguing of all in a world that is becoming ever smaller; why do we want to keep people fenced in or out of areas?

It seems that we find ourselves in somewhat of a discrepancy between instinctive territorial behavior, and an urge to transcend that very behavior, moving into an entirely different set of values…
Like we are walking up to a fence with on one side the desire to protect ownership of our possessions, and on the other side the desire to live by values like ‘honor’ and ‘respect’ and ‘oneness’.

In other words, it seems that we are yearning for a world without fences, where not only our boundaries are honored, but also the habitat of wildlife is respected. A world where we can live in oneness and equality.
Without the fear that bad things may happen to us, our families and our homes.

And while that is perhaps still a bit much to ask, perhaps it is time to start lowering the fences that keep us in that space where ~ just maybe ~ we no longer desire to be…
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