On Bad Boundaries

 

People in this day and age, for good reason I might add, in the Western World especially, value “boundaries”. 

Political, societal, personal. 

This is key to so many important human laws, and ensures safety for so many, - emotional, physical and spiritual. 

However in drawing a boundary you are inherently drawing a division.  Sometimes ironically we don’t need division, and having boundaries should never be an excuse to feel morally unobliging or ignorant. 

For example, a man is on a bridge about to jump off, holding onto the railing with his back to the structure and his face to the wind. You see him. 

My initial reaction would be to run to him to grab his arm, speak to him and reassure him. To save this stranger whom I do not know, to show him he is not alone; to save him.                                  

                                                                                                       To break a boundary.

If your initial reaction would be to walk on, you have mistakenly replaced your humanity with chosen ignorance - except *chosen ignorance doesn’t exist. It cancels out with what you inherently already know… and you have, simply put, lost your humanity. 

Sometimes it feels as though we forget this, forget our humanity. But what are we without it? Let’s hope for all our sakes it is not lost but simply buried, ready for us to recover.  

NB. Something my mum used to call out to me when I'd misplaced something, frantically looking all over the house for it: "In God's mind, nothing is lost!" This wasn't always that comforting, because usually I kind of needed it in that moment. But I often found it, just in time.

PS. Breaking a boundary doesn't always feel as good, not effective as it is - a lot like how uncomfortable the words in bold look on this page.