Figurative Walls
Walls are a part of everyday experience. We've lived within metaphorical, abstract, real and imagined walls from birth. Most of us were delivered in a hospital, and even from that moment, we were contained within the walls of protection that the doctors and our new parents gave us. Where else do walls incorporate more of who we are as individuals and as a society? Our nations are founded upon one and perhaps many different economic and political foundations. Some of these systems of government are based on nobility and the inherited right to rule. Others, like the United States, are founded upon principals of democracy and republicanism. These ideologies create walls for each of us. For example, in the caste system of earlier India, a person was born into a particular sect and he or she could never rise above that position, and so as an extreme example, this system of government and societal rule created virtually unbreakable walls. In the United States, a much looser system of social walls exists, and even our Constitution promises that man have the unalienable rights to l
Along the same lines, we people create walls that guard our personal space. In Latin American countries, people have a very small personal space, and so they would think nothing of approaching a stranger and having a passionate conversation maybe 5 inches away from that other person. On the other extreme Finnish society has established very distant personal space that is so removed, the country has had to create a system of mechanical "dances" the citizens go to, to meet other people. In fact, the Finland people use a system of lights that instruct the people when they are supposed to meet someone else. Again, these walls certainly exist in an abstract way, but to all people they are very real. In a more intimate way, we have walls that gradually melt as we begin to know someone more and more. Usually with a stranger, our walls tend to be very solid, and we have definite boundaries we would not let that person cross. And it isn't necessarily a spoken rule, rather our body language governs the rules about how close a person can get. And of course, the physical walls we hold dear almost
Some common words found in the essay are:
Latin American, Walls Walls, personal space, else walls, walls sooner, physical walls, create walls,
Approximate Word count = 741
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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