Barriers: Part 5

My entire stay in Bo Kaap made me think a lot about barriers. I was directly faced with a cultural barrier: I was living with a Muslim Cape Malay family while I am a Catholic American. This I did not find to be all that challenging of a barrier; I found myself up against a more difficult barrier during my home-stay in Romania where the parents didn’t speak English and I could not understand much Romanian. So there are two barriers: culture and language. But there are many other types, especially physical barriers. So here are just a few of my thoughts on barriers:

Cage diving off the coast of South Africa: I was particularly
happy to have the cage between me and the shark! Although,
I must say, when the are swimming naturally in the water they
are actually quite peaceful and gentle looking creatures.

Barriers come in all forms; they can be doors, windows, walls, sunglasses, tables, language, culture, etc. They put up a physical or metaphorical wall or separation between the people on either side of the barrier. Some can be controlled, such as doors, windows, or sunglasses. But others cannot. This control gives certain barriers more power than others in serving the purpose of a barrier, which is to protect whomever or whatever is on one side of the barrier form who/what is on the other side.

The jail cell Nelson Mandela stayed in on Robben
Island. While jail cells are guarded by doors, those
inside them actually don't have the freedom to come
and go as they please. That is the power of a lock,
yet another barrier.

A door represents a choice. It is not permanent, and it can be opened and closed with ease. Some have peep holes through which a person can look to determine if they would like to allow whomever or whatever is on the other side in. In this way it serves as a protection mechanism. The greater the protection a person needs from a door, the heavier the locking system they will develop on it. The door might also serve the purpose of protecting someone from the weather. In the cold, rain, or snow the door would be closed, but in nice weather the door would be opened. It is truly a barrier of choice.

A wall is more permanent. It is also meant for protection, but does not come with the element of choice. The Great Wall of China, for example, kept the Huns, and other enemies of China, out. But it also kept the people in. It is a distinct way of saying this is mine, and that is not mine. Also unlike a door, it cannot simply be passed through at will. There must be an opening to provide access to the other side. A roof acts as an upper wall, enclosing a house/building completely. Without a roof a person on one side of a wall can climb over to the other side of the wall, in essence using the top as the doorway. Regardless of whether there is a roof or not, it is a lot more difficult to get past a wall than a door.

The bridge at De Mond nature reserve. Bridges
allow passage from one side of an otherwise
impassable place to the other. They are kind of
the anti-barrier.

Like a wall, a window is a barrier of non passage. The purpose of a window is to provide light (and potentially heat/wind for cooling) into a space, and sight of what is on the other side. But a window is not meant for passing through. It is like a teaser wall, a kind of “look at what is on the other side, but you cannot go there” teasing. It is very much like a museum “look but don’t touch” in this sense. If someone really wanted to, however, and the window was large enough (as most are) a person could pass through a window. And in fact, this was commonly used in the southern United States when a door tax was passed. People the put long windows instead of doors leading out to balconies and decks. It is actually interesting to think of a window as a medium for passage. If you think about the saying “window of opportunity” like this, then the saying really doesn’t make sense. A true window is not meant to let you fully pass through, so how are we supposed to take advantage of a window of opportunity? Especially a small window of opportunity! Perhaps it is because a window is a safe way to see that which you are longing to see. And while many things pass by your window, you only pass through the doors that you choose to, and often which you saw past through

Vanessa and me at Spier for our farewell lunch. Notice the
cheetah in the background. Another majestic creature I was
happy to have behind a fence.

a window first. The other thing a window allows is with the curtain. While it is not distinctly part of the window, it is part of the window barrier. It gives the person on the inside of the window to close off the rest of the world from what is inside the window. It, like the door, is an optional protection. The window is thus a combination of the door and the wall, which perhaps makes it more powerful than either if used appropriately.