August 13 marked 55 years since the building of the Berlin Wall which came down in 1989, but not until over 100 people died attempting to get passed the wall and all of East Germany suffered economic decline as a result of its isolation from the rest of Germany.

In today's world "walls" are very much on people's minds as U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump advocates the building of a wall between Mexico and the U.S. The biggest walls, are not necessarily physical, but can be historical, psychological, economical, linguistic and more. This point was powerfully made by poet Robert Frost in his famous poem, Mending Wall. It tells the story of the narrator's property which is divided from his neighbor's by a wall comprised of stones piled upon one another. Each Spring, the neighbors fix a time to walk along the wall and pick up the stones that have fallen and make repairs. The narrator questions whether the wall is necessary at all given there are no cows – just apple and pine trees. The neighbor, however, is unmoved and rather than admit the irrationality of maintaining an unnecessary wall, simply repeats the adage again – "Good fences make good neighbors."

We should thus be conscious of the walls in our lives and whether they are truly necessary. Be prepared to look beyond and try to remove walls of misunderstanding, of economic inequality in society, of cultural insensitivity and intolerance so that we may live and work together in peace and prosperity.

While the narrator acknowledges that there are sometimes good reasons for walls (e.g. keeping cows in), we should not take existing walls for granted and should question them where necessary. Frost seems to suggest that there are people in the world that build walls and people who challenge them and want to see them come down. He also highlights the dangers of simply following old habits, customs, and ways of thinking that may no longer be valid. In a networked and increasingly interrelated world, walls seldom work. Instead, we need to adopt new metaphors, new ways of thinking and viewing the world that will enable us to adapt to the realities of a 21st Century Information Age.

Eugene Clark is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/eugeneclark.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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