Fences

there’s a house in our neighborhood that i’ve always liked.   truth be told,  if it would have been for sale seventeen years ago,  i think we would have tried to buy it instead of the one we did.

don’t get me wrong.   i love our house.   it’s been an amazing place to live and raise our boys the whole time we’ve lived in the great state.   but there are some things about this other house…

it sits on a corner over by the park…and the coolest thing about it is the back yard.   it completely opens up to the park.   it has a some beee-you-tee-full  st.  augustine grass that wraps around the side of the house…all through the back yard…and then flows unhindered right into the park.

and there’s no fence.

at least there wasn’t until some new people bought the house.

one of the things i was most taken by when we moved here from socal years ago,  was the absence of fences and walls in the back yards.   it seemed so…heartlandish.   sure…they had them in the planned communities and suburban areas all over…but not in the rural areas.   and not much in old town,  where we live.

and i love the openness.    we talk to our neighbors in the back yard.   we can see each other’s stuff.   our dogs have dog buddies they go out and talk to.    it’s friendly.

it’s why i really loved that other house.   and now the new owners have come in and desecrated it.   they are erecting an 8-foot wooden fence around the whole thing.   it’s so big and fancy that it’s taken nearly three weeks to build.   and it just makes me sad.

part of the sadness is that they are ruining a beautiful piece of the neighborhood…something that i have enjoyed walking by for years on my regular evening walks.   this house,  more than any of the others,  seemed to symbolize the openness and comfort of where we live.   now…it just feels different.   it’s a loss.

the other part is what the fence,  itself,  represents.

it really seems like we enjoy our walls.   we treasure our privacy.   we relish our space and don’t particularly like others intruding without our permission.   what happens behind the walls,  stays behind the walls.

and what goes on outside the walls can just stay there,  also.

too bad i’m not just talking about the walls we put up around our houses…

#fence #walls