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Sunday, March 18, 2012

Fence

Love you neighbor as yourself, but don't take down the fence.
~ Carl Sandburg
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When I was a toddler, my parents put a complicated chain / tie mechanism on the gate to our backyard.  I am assuming they did that to keep me in the yard so I wouldn't run out into the street or something.  Well, our family folklore has it that one day my mom was looking out and the garbage man was bringing out trash can back and he couldn't get in the yard because of all the restraints on the gate.  My mom said that I undid all the bindings so he could get in and drop off our trash can. 

Several years later, the chains and miscellany were all rusted and my brother Erik was playing near that gate and got attacked by wasps. 

I think the moral of the story is that the locks and walls and fences we put up often neither protect us nor do they keep things unwanted away from us.  Instead, we should wear shirts that say, "Please don't damage me" and see if that works.

Of course, those wasps probably couldn't read and would have still attacked Erik if he had been wearing that kind of t-shirt.

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