Walls

I - Question

Before you is a wall.
Describe what you see.

(Examples)

Brick & mortar, building blocks of matter stacked on top of each other to form a larger whole; gestalt?

Concrete, iron rods and tooth-breaking stone, inseparable grey powder and water, graffiti; miscible?

Wood, dried and cut into neat planks, glued or nailed into army stature, suffocating white paint; perfection?

Answer the following:
How tall is it?
How wide is it?
Does it block the sun?
Does it block the road?
Is it transparent, or is it opaque?
Is it soft, or is it hard?
What lies on the other side? (Maybe you can hear it if you listen hard enough.)
Who built it? (It was probably "you".)
Why? (To keep something out.)
Do you want to take it down? (Consider if it blocks the sun, or if it's a mild inconvenient trip of walking around it.)

Recall that if you want to take it down, you risk the weight collapsing on yourself. You might need help. You may need a specific tool. You might be able to do it yourself. It could also topple over at any moment (and when you awake, another will be in its place).

II - Answer

I will go next.

Before me is a wall.
It is made of thick, wavy glass with the taste of fresh water. If I squint I can see shapes on the other side and someone else's voice. It reminds me of fancy bathroom glass or pool tiles. I am reminded of the smell of chlorine.

It is twice my height.
Wide enough it takes 10 minutes to find the other end, only to find it wraps around.
It blocks the sun, but the light seeps through, so I can see still the light.
It is located far from the road, but inside my bedroom.
It is transparent, being glass.
It is hard.
Someone is on the other side.
I think I built it.
I can guess why. But I don't have the answers.
I would like to take it down.

I could try to take it down with a hammer, but I worry it will be too thick or the glass will shatter into a tiny million pieces. I want to do it myself, I do not trust others to do it for me. I do not worry it will topple, it is deeply rooted in the ground. I could not dig under it for that reason. I have come accustomed to its presence.

There is more than one.

III - Interpretation

Before us is a wall.
We describe what we see.

And we learn to live with them.

The construction and deconstruction of new and old walls.
It may be easy to believe they are obvious, but let's say you want to take them down. You have some options, if they are obvious. Wrecking ball, hammers, displacement, piece by piece, waiting for it to crumble. Really it depends on what your wall is made of.

But there are also walls that are masters of camouflage.

Imagine if you will a lush rainforest. Imagine that in this rainforest, you are looking for a wall.
You have probably imagined what it could look like. A tall slab in the middle of bright green trees, brick & mortar, glass, wood, stone, clay, sticks, steel, whatever first came to mind.

Now imagine there is a green chameleon. In a rainforest, it's not odd to see. They blend in well in the background, so it's a miracle you managed to see one. But this unassuming chameleon is a wall. It is guarding something. A hole in a tree, a bird's nest, a rotten leaf, a dying insect, whatever it is you do (or don't) want to see.

The problem with walls (and their deconstruction) is that it is often assumed that their presence is obvious. But I am sorry to remind you that we never actually defined what a wall could or could not be. Some of them are made of brick or stone and look like the face of a house or building or skyscraper.

But others look like green chameleons.
It is false to assume that if a wall is small, it is of inconvenience.
It is false to assume that a wall is obvious.
Is it false to assume that a wall is, really, a wall.

The problem here is that you are walking in a lush wet rainforest with a hammer and chisel in hand looking for a slab to tear down so that your next walk through this dense environment is a little bit easier.

But you are looking for a wall.

(Really, if you just gently removed the chameleon from its place, it would probably not be much of an issue to begin with.
I never said walls had to be removed violently. Its just that their [de]construction often is.)