Decorate the Walls

I've been gnawing on an idea lately and I'm not yet sure where I'm going with it, or if there's anywhere to go, but I'll share it with you all anyway. It comes from yet another song by the infamous Jimmy Buffett. This one is a love song called Coast of Carolina. The chorus goes like this:

From the bottom of my heart
Off the coast of Carolina
After one or two false starts
I believe we found our stride
And the walls that won't come down
We can decorate or climb
Or find some way to get around
Cause I'm still on your side
From the bottom of my heart.


Kinda sweet, huh? So, the part that's been nigging at me is the line:

"And the walls that won't come down, we can decorate or climb or find some way to get around."

...we can decorate. Now there's some imagery. And metaphors just waiting to come alive.

I mean, even among the people that we love the most, there are always walls. Those things that divide us. Issues we disagree on. Points of contention. And in a good relationship, we are always taught the benefits of tearing down those walls. Tear down the walls that separate countries, and the smaller walls that separate individual people. All over the place we find this imagery of the wall. In my neighborhood there is a church called "The Church Without Walls." We all know the metaphor, the goal. World peace? It would be a world without walls.

And yet... the pessimist in me can't help but laugh. The goal is all well and good, but like it or not, people are different. There will always be walls, because we will always draw lines. We have to. You know - "You gotta stand for something or you'll fall for anything." But I'm not even talking about those moral lines. There will be other walls, too. Because we are all different. We like different things. We see different things. We are all unique. To tear down every wall would be to tear down what separates our uniqueness. So, I laugh and go, "Yeah right... tear down the walls... sure, you do that. I'm going to go sit in my room surrounded by my safe walls and read a book."

Are you a pessimist or an optimist? I didn't realize that you could be both until I started really thinking about Jimmy Buffett's words. He's admitting that, even in his own marriage, he can't tear down every wall. So what will he do with those walls that won't come down? He'll decorate them.

...

I just... hold on, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the novelty of the concept.

Decorate... the walls?

Celebrate our differences? Not just the differences between our cultures, but between us and the family and friends that we love the most?

... wow. Whoda thunk?