In Robert Lewis Stevenson’s poem, The Swing, a few lines give a lilting sense to viewing a wall; How do you like to go up in a swing, / Up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the /pleasantest thing / Ever a child can do! / Up in the air and over the wall, / Till I can see so wide, / River and trees and cattle and all / Over the countryside— It makes you want to run to the playground and swing high to get a better view of the world.
Somtimes a wall is invisible. Often in neatly manicured, pristine neighborhoods, invisible walls exist, and neighbors do not know the names of their next door neighbors. During one of the many recent devastating river floods I saw where neighbors stopped wading through their on disasters, pitched in, to help other neighbors who had even more loss. Invisible walls disappeared and arms of care and help reached out—as the poem says–/ Till (they) can see so wide/ .
Robert Frost’s poem, Mending Wall, describes two neighbors mending the stone wall between them. One neighbor quotes his grandfather, “Good fences make good neighbors.” The other neighbor speculates– Before I built a wall I’d ask to know / What I was walling in or walling out, / And to whom I was like to give offense./ Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, / That wants it down.’
The poem raises some important issues; Why is the wall there? and Why do we allow that wall. What are we walling in or walling out. Walls isolate. Gates in walls offer welcoming portals that can help nurture friendships and neighborhoods.
Life spans are trending longer now. Healthcare researchers advise reaching out to family, friends, and neighbors, and how it is important to develop a network of relationships. Medical research shows that people who who maintain and extend social relationships tend to live healthier, happier lives. Trustworthy relationships are pure gold.
I have a nucleus of friends, whom I could call at midnight desperately needing help; any one of whom would arise to help. It is priceless comfort. Such friendships often take decades to develop. On rare occasions a trustworthy friendship can develop more quickly—over shared values, interests, and gut instincts. This has happened more than once in my lifetime—one such friendship now lastiing nearly sixty years.
© Copyright Willis H. Moore 2025
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