Walls
I would like to talk about walls. I am not a great Reader’s Digest fan but there was an interesting article on walls that caught my attention.
The article was a discussion about a book called Walls. the article is called “Crossing the Line” by Marcello Di Cintio..
A piece of the Berlin Wall sits in Montreal.
He talks about all the walls that have been erected at one time or another around the world to keep people in or keep people out depending on the point of view of the wall builder. In the distant past they were probably built for protection around cities but in more modern times they are usually built to keep people apart. The article features a large piece of the Berlin wall that is now on display in Montreal.
Of course, the walls are created by people: not only does it take the form of barbed wire or bricks and mortar, but humans create walls within themselves. Racism, sexism or xenophobia are typical examples.
As gender variants, transexuals or transgender people, we bump into walls all the time. Sometimes when we least expect it. One of the biggest is the wall we create for ourselves when we are dressed en-femme. Walking along the street, in a shopping mall, or sitting in a restaurant, where we worry if we are passing, are we being stared at or worse, are we the subject of ridicule? There are groups we worry about such as religious fundamentalists and of course people who are totally ignorant of what or who we are and tend to treat us as unworthy of any consideration.
To overcome this we need to have pride and confidence in ourselves which takes a long time to develop, and we probably never fully succeed. The more exposure we get to the outside world the more confident we become.
There is hope however and I have borrowed the last paragraph of the article as my conclusion.
“What eventually wins out is not the desire to wall, but the impulse to break through. The piece of the Berlin Wall in Montreal was a trophy because it symbolized a barrier that had surrendered to a human compulsion greater than that which built it. It reminds us of the inevitability of our better natures and in this the constant thrum of hope. The walls will continue to rise and we will continue to tear them down.”
READER’S DIGEST, December, 2012
Category: Transgender Body & Soul
About the Author (Author Profile)
I was born in England in 1935 and spent fourteen years in British Navy starting in 1951. I married in 1958 and stayed that way for 51 years. My wife gave me 3 sons all now in their fifties, only one knows of my little pecadilo. Four grand children all in or completed University. I emigrated to Canada in 1968. Worked for the oil, gas and power industries until I retired at 66. My first wife died of cancer in 2009. I was introduced to Gail by a mutual friend and we have been together six years and married for three. Gail was aware of my crossdressing before we married and supports it wholeheartedly with some rules. I have to be Paul some of the time, which is fair. I am a Libra and I own it.Subscribe
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Thank you for this very enlightening article. The message is one that is so very simple and yet also quite profound. Give me a bridge over a wall, anytime.
Nice article with which I agree completely. I think that over time we are able to break down many of the walls that you describe. It is surely a lifelong effort.