Honestly, I am so sick of hearing people characterize others by their skin color. While working with children, especially teens, I constantly hear them refer to each other according to race. I call …show more content…
My father loves walls: literal walls. Ever since I was small, I watched him place physical barriers to mark his territory. He built walls using Red Tip trees that served as a distant privacy fence for our pool. He also hired men to build brick walls on the edge of our property, specifically, between our home and our neighbor’s. The walls were beautiful and tasteful with wrought iron lamps atop every other pillar and quoins to enhance each corner post; yet, I never liked them. In fact, I despised them. There was something about the brick-red wall that disturbed me; although, my daddy insisted that they enhanced our property. As I grew in understanding, I recognized the primary reason my father valued his walls, and it was not aesthetics. He possessed the “mine” mentality of every two year old who does not want to share. Prior to the walls being in place, I remember my neighbor always mowing a few strips of our grass while he was cutting his own. The act of kindness only frustrated my dad. The reason being that our lawn was sodded with fine Zoysiagrasses and it was immaculate. Each footstep was like sinking into foamy, luxurious marshmallows. The lawn company cut it on the tallest setting which kept it lush and the purest shade of green. My precious, dear neighbor only wanted to be helpful. Nevertheless, up went that “beautiful” brick wall. It did a fine job of keeping our well-intended neighbor out of our perfectly manicured yard and out of our lives. We did not post a “no trespassing” sign on it since that, of course, would not have been tasteful. Still, it screamed an equally harsh message. I never understood why my daddy loved that wall, however, it birthed something positive inside of me, and I loved my neighbors more as a result of