Walk The Line

This morning over coffee I looked up at the digital photo frame my wife got for Christmas to see myself standing with one foot in Palestine and another in Israel. Another photo came up with me standing with one foot in the northern and another in the southern hemisphere. In addition to a host of memories about two great trips, there was a motivation to think about borders, boundaries, demarcations and limits.

Many boundaries are arrived at arbitrarily and others are drenched in blood; some are personal, some societal and many are simply ridiculous. But one thing is common to all boundaries : they are for protection and they are exclusionary. For many they are the dead line in the Stalag they have made of their lives.

We are encouraged to have personal boundaries. What does that mean? Certainly it means that there are things we will and will not do but they also act like a governor on an engine. If we love too much or are too altruistic we will burn out like an engine throwing a rod. For some the ultimate personal boundary is simply saying “no” when that feels right. I wonder if it’s possible to spontaneously combust because of too much caring. Are boundaries about taking care of yourself and maximizing your time in a self defined comfort zone?

Nations create boundaries to protect people that are “like us.” It is the ultimate exclusion and it quickly descends into “othering” entire populations. The United Nations recognizes 44 distinct nations on the European continent and history has shown us that the descent into nationalism with its need to stigmatize leads to atrocity. Suffice it to say that we all seem to need lines of demarcation to be happy and secure but here is the ultimate irony – all of our most serious problems are unbounded…they are universal.

Climate change, spiking violence, cancer, do not give a whit about our personal safe zones but there is good news. Music, Art, Literature and other comments on the human condition travel in the ether of the human soul, a soul that knows no limitation and is unafraid. As Marshall McLuhan once said ” Once you see the boundaries of your environment, they are no longer the boundaries of your environment. ”

So cheers to those who give too much, enjoy greatly, travel the world and rise above. Their lives are an inspiration.

Boundless.