BOUNDARIES

 BOUNDARIES

“Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down."  From “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost

We’re getting ready for a road trip and we will cross the Mexico/U.S. boundary wall twice, once going, once coming back and it’s as easy as it gets. The land doesn’t know it has boundaries, it just is.  I think about the times we have crossed a border in other countries and continents, north, south, east or west. Someone drew a line in the land and gave it a name. There are those who travel extensively to other countries and cultures, some whose lives are in constant motion, perhaps putting down for as long as a year at a time. Their knowledge and experience seems broader and deeper than many who are fixed in fewer places over a lifetime. The featured NASA image of the world shows no boundaries, nor can one see any from 30,000 feet. You can see oceans, continents, mountains, rivers and lakes and while these have been used as boundaries, they had no say in how they were regarded.

What I found in our travels was that regardless of country, language or culture, people are the same species, homo sapiens, although I question the wise or astute half of the term. I wonder if what has evolved instead is homo ignarus. Both species seem durable when you review the history of wars, poverty, hunger and disease.  We have wiped out numerous civilizations over time as they had to either adapt and blend in or disappear as some aboriginal people have done.

I believe our survival has more to do with our being adept at communication such as language and art for self-expression, the exchange of ideas, and organization. We have created many cooperating and competing groups, from families to countries. When people have either settled in or conquered another country, one of the first things they do is to create boundaries - states, provinces, cities, counties, townships, parishes – all with rules and regulations for its citizens. When the white European settlers arrived in the U.S. they colonized and carved out 13 territories, pushing Native Americans west until they were placed on reservations, large swaths of less desirable land in many cases. One noteworthy exception was the Osage tribe in Oklahoma who discovered rich deposits of oil on their land.  If you have never read Mark Twain’s “The Descent of Man” it’s an essay worth putting on your list to read, mark and digest.

Our very human desire to understand and influence our environment, and explain and manipulate phenomena, has been the foundation for the development science and religion.  And both have created enormous conflicts in our world and why?   Is it because of the old territorial imperative? Pride, jealousy or some psychological need for control?  When did humans begin to evidence the need for dominance and control?  It’s been part of human history since ancient times, pre-recorded history.  There are few people who have lived entirely at peace although there are some examples. The Orang Asli societies are some of the most peaceful cases known to anthropology and have no history of feuding or warring. The Chewong language “lacks words for aggression, war, crime, quarreling, fighting, or punishment. When confronted with aggressiveness or threats, they immediately flee, since flight has normally been their response to violence,”

Right now, the world seems a little wacked out over differences in values and consequent behavior of how we human beings treat each other. On one hand we have compassion, kindness and love and on the other side of the fence what seems like cold-heartedness, cruelty and hatred. One example of a lasting peace was the Iroquois Confederacy which lasted 300 years.  The U.S. has lasted 248 years thus far. The Declaration of Independence states that that “all people are created equal and have certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  There appear to be millions currently who do not seem to be committed to equality and inalienable rights.

Each side is trying to prevail through various means and neither negotiation nor force seems to be resolving much.  The conflicts and disagreements continue to reinforce the boundaries and separation rather than breaking down those things that keep us apart and prevent our cooperation and collaboration to solve some of the common issues that affect everyone.

Some of us have hopes that the next generation will do a better job at all of this and more, and make the world safer, healthier and more friendly.  However it is up to us who are still here to do what we can while we can to erase or at least question the boundaries that keep us apart and prevent us from solving issues of common concern. For now, I’m going with compassion, kindness and love, even toward those with whom I disagree.

For some additional insights, thoughts and observations, here’s a 5 minute read, written in 2014, worth your time;

https://www.dailygood.org/story/843/of-webs-boxes-and-boundaries-margaret-wheatley/