Humans have been building walls for a very long time. The excavation of Jericho (the biblical city) suggests that its earliest walls may have been built around 8000 BCE. If we use the Walls of Jericho as a basis, we've been in the business of putting up barriers for a very, very long time.
For only slightly less time however, humans have been coming up with interesting and novel ways of overcoming walls built by other humans. From stealthy grappling hooks to cunning sappers and brutish catapults, we have devised dozens of ways of overcoming walls.
There are and have been other famous walls around the world: the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall and the Western Wall. They have been used as symbols of unity and symbols of discord. One wall shelters us while another divides us.
Walls are a powerful symbol in our minds - an imposing obstacle which is difficult if not impossible to overcome. A barrier that stands in our way and prevents us from reaching a destination, or at least taking a lengthy detour. But the encircling wall can also be the symbol of hearth and home, of sanctuary against a chaotic and destructive world. Or it can become a prison if enclosed too tightly.
We name the walls in our minds differently depending on how we see them. If the wall is preventing us from reaching our creative potential, we might call it "writer's block". Prejudice and bigotry are walls that colour our views of people around us. Morals and rules keep us from straying too far from what matters most. Habits and comfort zones just keep us from straying too far in any given direction.
I don't believe it is possible to be a functional member of society without walls in your mind somewhere. You need some boundaries that tell you what is possible and what isn't, what to expect from someone and how to treat them. But too many walls, or walls in the wrong places can be equally disasterous.
So why consider these walls at all if we need them? Why talk about them if we need to have walls in place for us to be able to function? Who's to say what are the right walls and what are the wrong ones? Aren't my walls just as good as yours?
Walls are usually blinding to what is actually occuring on the other side of them. This has been used to the (dis)advantage of people throughout history by thinking the impossible, by thinking outside the box. Not everything outside the box is valid, useful, popular or practical. But the right piece of information gleaned from outside the box of common knowledge can be a powerful tool - it has raised empires up, and then razed them again.
When we learn something new, we are rebuilding our walls to accomodate new information. Most of what we can learn from our general education system is in the form of external world knowledge - politics, science, mathematics. If we continue this metaphor a little further, the schools teach us how to take information and expand our walls to accomodate it. We unlock new, greener pastures and can explore areas that were previously unknown to us.
Sometimes we also construct a wall defensively, to protect us from a predator. While this certainly applies to victims of emotional abuse, we all have been hurt by those we loved in some way. We build protective barriers to keep others at bay, lest they hurt us again as we have been hurt before. But even if you build your wall to keep a wolf at bay, the wolf will not lurk there forever. It will grow hungry for new pray and move on - though our wall still stands.
Rarely though are we taught how to tackle our own walls, to see if they are still valid, to look beyond them and imagine what lies there. To see that the once dangerous wolf has moved on and it is safe to venture forth again. To find greener pastures without having to rely on other people to tell us where they are.
If you encounter a wall in your mind and you've never even seen the other side, then I endorse overcoming that wall if only for a little while. Climb it, tunnel under it, walk around it, dynamite it, or just install a window. Do something so you know what's out there. It might be the greenest pasture you've ever seen.