Yesterday morning when I was walking, I was shocked to see a gated home with a sign that read, “Entry by appointment only.” I was offended by the sign particularly when I thought back to the Bermuda of my youth when we roamed freely through the hills. Using neighbours’ yards as short cuts. And nothing was private property. Thinking when did my Island home become a place where homes are gated and worse yet when did we become a society that decided we are so important that the only way people can come to visit is by appointment only. When did we start closing ourselves off? Creating an elitist society?
As I walked along, I realised erecting walls has become the new thing in Bermuda. People enclosing themselves from their neighbours. Putting up barriers between each other. Shutting the outside world out. Cocooning ourselves from others. Not knowing who our neighbours are in our quest for privacy and status.
We have moved so far from that society where there were no street names. Where we used to give directions using landmarks such as other people’s homes. Now no one knows who lives where because we are erecting walls. Putting up gates and electric fences. Closing ourselves in. Shutting each other out. Erecting signs that say, “Entry by appointment only.”
We have become so impersonal in our quest for wealth and status that we have forgotten it is our dependence on each other that fuels love and understanding, peace and empathy, openness and compassion. Not walls. Walls only invite in those we do not want. Walls increase our chances of being invaded and broken into. Walls create barriers so our neighbours become our enemies rather than our guardians.
There was a time not so long ago when everyone in the neighbourhood knew each other. Looked out for each other. Cared enough about each other that there were no door keys because there was always someone in the neighbourhood who knew what was going on. Who kept watch over the neighbourhood, the children, our homes. And no one dared take anything or harm anyone without the grapevine finding out and punishing the culprit. Or even better no one did anything because they did not want to embarrass their families. Now people pull their curtains and turn their backs to the crimes being committed right in front of them because they have been raised to believe it is none of their business. A direct consequence of the walls we are erecting. The barriers we are creating.
By erecting walls and gates and shutting each other out, putting up no trespassing signs and getting angry if anyone intrudes on our space, we are attracting the very danger in that we are trying to keep out. There is nothing more attractive to someone than what they cannot have. The more security we put in, the more likely it is we will be intruded upon. Because the criminals know there is no one watching over the neighbourhood and if they can get over the walls or through the gates no one will see them. Because ironically, they become protected by the very walls we have erected to keep them out. That’s why there are so many more break-ins. Because criminals have grown up seeing no one knows each other anymore. That the dollar is more important than intimacy. That there is no such thing as a true neighbourhood anymore.
Erecting walls is symbolic of the times we are living in because we have become prisoners of our possessions and status. Afraid that one day someone will come along and take them from us so we hide behind our walls. Holding on tight to what we have rather than tearing down the walls and sharing with our neighbours so that information can flow freely again. People will care about each other again. And we can become communities again rather than strangers fighting to keep everyone out. Only then will we be able to go back to the African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Only then will we be set free. Because we will teach our children that no man is an Island. That we are all dependent on each other and with the erection of walls and gates all we are doing is shutting out the possibility that exists beyond our walls.
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