When community is such a buzzword, why do we insist on building barriers?
I'm talking about our six-foot front fences again.
Driving down a quiet, pleasant, meandering residential street recently, I was struck again by the impression of impermeability that rows and rows of tall front fences give to a casual passer-by. It was all the more noticable because several houses had recently been rebuilt, renovated and/or sold and therefore had the obligatory six-foot timber-paling fence erected. And immediately adjacent were several older houses with no fence to speak of.
Connection requires openness. And yet we're closing off our properties to the world.