borders

Where we stand depends on where we sit! The stances that we take, the identity we craft for ourselves and dispense for others, depends on what sits in our mind.

Our minds are expensive real estate. Perhaps the most expensive of all real estate in the world.

Let’s take care of what thoughts we let in as tenants. Because, those are the thoughts that we will sit on.

Besides what sits in us will also determine what stands we take.

We learn from history that we don’t learn much from history. I read that somewhere and it stuck to my mind.

At the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, erstwhile army gear and flags of nations become props for photo ops for visitors.

For a small fee of course. In battle, people pay with their lives, to defend the flag, which is a different matter altogether.

Amongst other thoughts it struck me that it is part of identity, isn’t it?

If that is so, what defines us, automatically excludes a lot more.

Well, what defines you? What else could you possibly become?

What are the borders in your mind that you seek to overcome?

What are the borders in your mind that you don’t even know, exist?

(at Brandenburg Gate (Potsdam)

Of borders and lines !

“Nations have been sacrificing individuals in the name of the nation – and ‘nation’ is just a word. The lines that you have drawn on the map are not anywhere on the earth. They are just your game. But fighting over these lines that you have drawn on the map, millions of people have died – real people dying for unreal lines . And you make them heroes. National heroes.” – Osho

These lines seemed to jut out of the book and stare at me. Many years ago, I read the book A borderless world by Kenichi Ohmae, and I fell in love with the idea, that commerce would break down national boundaries. And we were seeing the first evidences of it back then. For instance, I vaguely http://pharmacy-no-rx.net/levitra_generic.html recall, he talking about how the turnover of Microsoft was twice as big as the GDPs of many countries. And how, such organisations wielded more relative power than ‘countries’ per se.


I sang ‘Imagine’ by John Lenon loudly and walked about, searching & hopeful of deliverance. Today, that idea seems to be coming at us with great speed. But clinging to this idea are the borders too. With much more emphasis and starkness. There are more borders than ever.


Over time, years and commerce, the heights and the lengths of the fences have just kept growing. Sure, commerce is changing the world. The fences are getting dismantled only to be relocated! With an ever increasing number of people becoming numb to their own souls, the boundaries, labels and stereotypes are getting pronounced even more!

Am not sure where this post is headed. Just like me. Standing at what seems like an approach to a weird crossroad.


Life & time slip by. Fence or no fence. Perhaps carrying all the answers between them !