Boundaries
Sun Aug 29 2004

Have you ever seen a pantomime on the streets: mime would do that funny moves, as if he is behind a glass wall and can’t get through it? He would be pawing over the invisible barrier, making anxious faces and it would look like that wall is there for real…

Barriers set up by us. Boundaries. Artificial or natural, it is us, who define them.
From time to time we stumble upon them, when walking new paths. Some boundaries are – our own creations, others – those of others. Which one you’d prefer? Certainly it’s better when what stops you – your own limits. Physical, or moral or religious, anything really…Everyone has got different limits and that’s natural – everyone is different.

Does it hurt when you hit someone else’s barrier? Sure it does. Is there an alternative? A way to avoid collision? Doubt that there is…The very point of a boundary is – you hit it, because you don’t see it! But isn’t it the way to learn – to run against the walls and take upon the bruises from the clash?
“The more we live, the more we learn, the more we know…”

Killing has its boundary. The amount of hate or frustration one has defines how far one can go. I’ve witnessed how such boundaries gets moved out of proportion under certain circumstances.
It happened when I graduated from school; there was that war in Afghanistan. Due to compulsory military service my male classmates had to go through that rigorous soldier's duty…Few never returned. Those who came back, changed. We talked. They described how terrifying it was – to do your first killing. After the first one next has been easier and so was every next shot. The barrier of killer’s brute appeared to get broaden and there were no more moral stopper to kill a human. Most of them ended up as bouncers, or body guards for the mafia’s big men. Only few choose civil professions. Once stretched, boundaries almost impossible to narrow back down.

Animals kill without hesitation – their boundaries lies very wide, limited only by the fear of starvation – natural boundary.
If somebody will ask me “…could I kill someone for real?”
My answer would probably be – it depends on what limits that person has. I would like to hope that theirs boundaries would not be natural like those of animals, but more of – moral, set up by human, about human, for human. Killers simply unable to comprehend and control their instincts – how then they different from animals?...

Love has its boundary too. Despite of millions of famous quotes about “unlimited love”, still – I believe that you can only love that much – as much as you are able to give. When you've got nothing left to give, a glass wall of sympathy will be built.
And the mime will never get through.

There are so many boundaries in our lives. It would be good to know them, although no one does and I think - no one ever will. You can try in order to learn or you can just learn it from the others, who already have experience in crossing. Either way - it is - your responsibility and it will be you to stand in front of the judge when you violate your boundaries.

Your desire for an illusion is like a wing.
This wing will take you to Reality ...
Preserve the wing; do not feed the desire
this wing of desire will take you to Paradise.
People think they are enjoying themselves:
in reality they are tearing their wings apart for the sake of an imaginary form…
[Rumi]

3 Comments
  • From:
    Labyrinth (Legacy)
    On:
    Sun Aug 29 2004
    very thought provoking entry today. i have barriers i have built around me. i have built it long ago becuz of pains i went thru. as time goes by, i am trying to letdown a piece of it, section by section. how true about that killer instincts in us. how sad when one is forced to do it becuz of duty protecting freedom or self-preservation.

    Orient:)
  • From:
    Bubbles1956 (Legacy)
    On:
    Sun Aug 29 2004
    I agree we all have boundaries. Some of them we do know, like we will not do certain things, for what ever reason, we set that limit to that particular thing. Some boundaries are unknown, as how far can we really love. I don't know if we are really tested to max out on love, or patience. I think patience. I do not stop loving, but I stop being "in Love", in part for lack of patience. Sometimes, I think it is easier to walk away than to suffer the silence, or the lack of respect or what ever it is that I don't have the patience to take any more. Some of our boundaries are set up because we are afraid of new things, but as our contacts with others increase, we modify our boundaries accordingly. I think as we all grow, and experience life, we realize most of our boundaries and modify them as we go.

    Internet Mom
  • From:
    Teaeyegger (Legacy)
    On:
    Mon Aug 30 2004
    Lyrical expression is far and away… a song to settle into… ideals of romantic interludes 2ithin the branches of the forest and trees so familiar yet so far away… a crash of orchestral maneuvers in the darken delight of being… a rising to meet the challenge set forth… a setting of fourths in time with the others…

    What is boring to the writer is often the most interesting to those that read… one man gathering what is spilled by another… the stone cast off becoming the stone on witch this foundation is built… many days to go and still the hour stops me… for it is not that of witch I wish to formulate a creative journey… to each their own…