Have you ever sat back and really thought about walls, and what they have contributed to civilization? Throughout history, and even further back to where all we have to go on are the stories written by ancients, one has to
Have you ever sat back and really thought about walls, and what they have contributed to civilization? Throughout history, and even further back to where all we have to go on are the stories written by ancients, one has to wonder when the very first wall was built, and what its intentions may have been. I suppose in our country, for the past few years or decades, our attention has been hooked by talk of big walls on our border, and how high and foreboding they need to be.
There already exist walls and barriers that are much, much higher than any wall talked about currently or that could ever be built. Sometimes they reach right up into the very heavens, stronger than the hardest steel, and are much more difficult to penetrate than the Great Wall of China in its day.
The builders are easy to find – they are every one of us, at one time or another in our lives. Whether we have only contributed a few bricks, or maybe thousands, one thing is for certain: Not a single brick contains one ounce of love or a good purpose. Their makeup contains no light whatsoever, and the end product is as dark as a moonless night. These are the barriers we have put up between any person or people who don’t think, look, believe, or live like ourselves.
These very walls which we have constructed with our own hands can have a bewitching or hypnotizing quality about them as well, so extreme that we believe that we must kill those on the other side to wipe them out, as was the case with the Native Americans, and many others throughout history. A few have realized the insanity of this, and have tried to spread a message of compassion for one another, and have usually been ostracized or killed themselves. The teacher I myself follow was nailed to a cross for his efforts, but inevitably in the end, he caused a gigantic part of the wall to crumble, and gave hope to others that this wall wasn’t infallible.
So here we are – will fear continue to deaden our hearts toward one another, or can we change before we destroy our very souls? Is it possible for you and I to remove the bricks we have contributed to this barrier? Take away just a small section, and you will be surprised at how it will inspire others to join along side of you to help. The wall will eventually lose its strength and crumble.
Steve Sudela is a resident of
Kailua-Kona
