Meditations on Borders

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I was walking in my neighborhood admiring the vast architectural diversity lining the roads. Each house having a different layout and arrangement of doors and windows. Decorated designs of carefully calculated colors and angles. I started to imagine what the inside of the houses looked like. An assemblage of furniture, objects, food, clutter and people. A wonderful anthropological analysis of how people like or love to live.

Each house consists of the different rooms. Those rooms are rooms because they have four walls and most likely a door or at least some trendy beads. Rooms for the most part serve some type of functionality. You cook in the kitchen. You have leisure time in the living room. You do your business in the bathroom. Etc etc. The walls define the limits of the room and what you can physically do in them. We create definitions of these rooms surrounded by four walls to make sense of our lives. We gravitate towards purpose and function and rooms serve to compartmentalize what we need to do when we need to do it.

Zooming in we can see that rooms normally have many types of containers and boxes. Cabinets, closets, computers, chests and more! Some of these containers contain smaller containers inside theme. We tend to over look these boxes that we put our goodies in. They collect dust and we use them for storage for things that we have forgotten about. We get attached to these boxes and identify with the meaning they give us. This brings about the concept of property and ownership. ( A sense of "mine". ) Objects are just objects, but what they mean to us is why we keep them and why we feel so attached.

Zooming out from smaller boxes to rooms to houses to neighborhoods to districts to cities to states to countries to the planet earth, we can see that we are part of something BIG. All of these definitions are defined by their borders. The big picture is made of smaller bits. One definition or classification contains more definitions. In order to describe a certain thing, one must limit terms intentionally to fit the appropriate image or idea we see in our heads. The very definition of a definition is to limit, but we can always have infinite ways of defining one or more things. This creates boundaries around objects and ideas. We have evolved to see the edges of objects more precisely for the very reason of seeing how we could use them to survive.

Limits are a gateway to creativity and understanding on how we can grow together. 

It's important to understand the edges of things. The corners of a room and the lines on a residential street. A stop sign is merely a shape with a command on it. An object of useful and necessary value. As people we see things in the real worlds as tools. Tools for learning how to navigate the world around us. Our perceptions of borders/boundaries extend outward from our perception of how we want to see the world. Each influenced by passing moods and chemical concoctions based on external and genetic factors. A soup of cause and effect. A dance of call and response.

We all have our own boundaries. Our personal autonomy is paramount in understanding the key aspects of borders. You have control over your body and aware of the space around you and others while interacting. Most people do not want to hurt people or be hurt by others in the physical sense. We all respond to touch in different ways and we all have the responsibility to keep to ourselves unless we specifically desire or need to do something. We can see our body as being our property and what we do with it and what gives us meaning can extend outward to other objects. So when we start from the body we can move outwards and understand how the self plays a big role in defining the space around us and the people we choose to commiserate with.

Your body. Your room. Your place of living. Your food in the fridge. Your automobile. Your place of work. Mine. My. Might. The inner is a reflection of the outer.

These are the definitions and concepts that most of us identify with. Identity plays a key role in understanding boundaries. The self extends outward into the world and we project what we think is ours based on how it makes us feel or how much meaning it gives us. How do we feel when someone enforces their wills on us? How does it make us feel when someone uses something that means so much to us without asking? How does it feel when people steal from us? This is where our conception of morality comes into play. Take note of when someone trespassed against you. How did it make you FEEL?

Most of us can agree that the act of stealing is wrong especially when it involves us directly. We feel shaken and betrayed. It can twist our world view up in an instant. We see stealing as crossing a line. A line that is personal and almost universal based upon context. Stealing and assault are both violations of one's boundaries. Boundaries extending from one's own sense of self. One's own sense of individual autonomy. One's own set of behaviors and habits that build a sense of character over time. These boundaries are made very apparent when violated or manipulated. We extend ownership from what we think and feel we have earned. Some of it has been given to us. We have been conditioned in a society built around the concept of borders and ownership. From organizations, to groups, to cities to countries. We come together under the umbrella of groups that distinguish from other groups. From this, conflict arises.

There is always the potential for conflict when we put borders and walls around things. It implies that each contained place has a certain set of rules and limits. Even if it is an imaginary line or a line drawn in the sand, we can understand the purpose and meaning of these barriers. When we drive, we observe the borders of the lanes we drive in even if they are only painted on the street and we could easily cross them into possible peril. When we cross the physical and symbolic lines, we are not immune to the consequences. If we are caught treading on unfamiliar land, we can be punished, banished or sent to box with its own limits. The key is understanding how we make and SEE borders. When we can simply observe how what we do and what we create can potentially create division or aggression, we can begin to wake up to how we have been so conditioned to default to the sense of self and the sense of ME. Who you are as a person and what that means for how to interact with the world around you.

Definitions lead to more definitions. Limits lead to more limits. Borders lead to more borders.

Think of your sense of self as a smooth and flat rock. A rock perfect enough to skip across a pond with finesse and accuracy. The rock will eventually sink once it reaches a certain point. If you simple just throw the rock into the water, the rings radiate outward from the center of the drop. The waves start off small and get bigger. You can see each wave as a type of level and border. With each increasing layer, one can see how they can impact everything else around them. If you do something "good" or "bad" it radiates outward more than we can see. We may think our actions are insignificant, but it can affect the environment, people around us and our future selves. How you choose to box yourself in with identity and self consciousness will determine how you will act in the future. The ripples enhance and intensify all that is manifested. All that we want and don't want. All that we want to see in the world.

Identities are like boxes. People use definitions to control you. Identity creates borders between other identities. A wall against understanding of the world. How are we controlled by definitions in our lives? What borders are we creating for ourselves? What borders are we allowing others to make for us?

Most borders are invisible, yet we act as if they are more real than life itself. 

There is so much space. Around us and within us. We tend to forget this. The space between thoughts, the space between tasks, the space between our fingers and the space between others. In this material focused world, we are more fixated on the objects, ideas and tools that take up space in our world than what is in between them. There's a stillness in all this madness. Negative space is just as important as the positive space. Think of the space between objects or the space between paintings. When the paintings are too close together, we notice it more. We can feel the tension. We all need our own personal space. A space to get away from the hustle and bustle of the mechanized measured world. We may create our own space the way we want it to fully experience the space we desire. From this we can understand how space is very important in understanding the conceptual framework of borders.

We can share in the space around us. We create space to grow, learn and to commune with others. We create space to open up from the walls of our own minds and living situations. All of these spaces can bring us together. Space can unite us with commonalities and differences. We can co-create spaces to reflect what we value and then extend the space once it starts to attract more people that share the same ideas and values. The best space is created when one can create and observe the spaces in their own mind. Not focusing on dividing or labels. But simply being with the stillness of space and not escaping into the self. The self is the biggest instigator in putting up walls.

The self thrives on comparison and building better armor against the threats and challenges of the world. When one can put down their sword, they can open up the gates that have been used to define them. They can extend the borders outward and understand the importance of borders when they are necessary. Borders can be tools when we need to use them, but when they become a part of who we think we are we only build bigger walls and shrink the house we have built for ourselves.

When we gravitate toward an ideal sense of borders, we tend to miss the mark on why we want to create borders in the first place. We can all agree on obvious reasons for borders. If we were all stacked up on top of each other, we would have plenty of discomfort and conflict. Like mentioned above, it's important to have space. In order to really have functionally sound borders, we must also have the sense for space. Just like a sentence is separated by punctuation, borders are separated by the space between. A mutual understanding and respect for the constructed duality of concepts and definitions.

There is that resonant space between the lines. Always changing. Always begging us to question why we create bridges and/or walls. 

We can start at each step and not try to manifest an Utopian ideal of borders. We can take it all by context. By facts. By practicality. By conscious conversation on how we can all live peacefully together starting from the smallest units of relationship. We can define borders on how it will bring more harmony into the world. Without stepping on toes or oppressing a person or groups of people. There will always be outliers. Always the need to restrict and defend. We can be firm and compassionate at the same time when defining our own borders. When we have a healthy sense of space, we can use that to influence others. We can respect the variations of space from individual to individual. We see ourselves in others. People can be mirrors of our insecurities, joys and strengths. Self awareness is one of the most important tools to create mindful and functional borders.

So how can we move forward while having better awareness with how we create borders in our lives? How can we break outside of our little bubbles and challenge that discomfort of us putting up walls to protect ourselves? What does it tell us about ourselves when we are so eager to create walls between new experiences and potential conflict? Sit with these questions. What is the good in building more walls and less bridges? Have we stacked up symbolic bricks too high to see what is actually going on around us?

DG