“never a sound of building”

Inspired by the poem “Walls” by CP Cavafy.

Walls, limits, borders have been created by society to confine the human condition. These partitions can be physical, brick-and-mortar walls, but also elusive confinements within brain neurons. These mental walls are constructed by verbal cues embedded in condemnations and signals encountered throughout one’s lifetime. One can overhear them among children at the playground, among students at the school yard and classroom, while colleagues interact at work, while spending time with friends, on social media, on the news. The cues travel from the hearing nerve to the cortex that determines perception. From the repetition, the perceptive nerves transform them into mental bricks that erect walls within, walls that remove the ability to live a fulfilled life integrated in society. When young, the building process goes unnoticed, and we even participate in the building. Ironically, as children, they tell us to build walls and sandcastles. We obliged and walls and barriers we build. As adults, we live in boxes stacked on top of each other. We are next to each other, together yet apart. But time goes by. We become old. Then, on a cold afternoon while sitting next to the window where the sunset light is warm, astonished, we finally see the walls. Forced out by the light, they step from behind the half open curtains like ghosts and encircle us. At that point, we wonder when they were built these walls since we never heard sounds of building, never saw the builders nor the bulldozers. But here they are and now what?