Once upon a time, some people on a road were stopped by a wall.
We didn't mind. It was a good place to stop for a while, and as more people coming down the road stopped at the post, a group grew at its foot. Most people enjoyed gathering together, so the wall seemed like a event, a good reason to rest and chat and work together for a while.
The post wasn't impassable, of course. Some could still climb over the pile and continue on their journey, but the post was a little hard, and the happy group was so tempting, and few bothered.
People being people, we couldn't just leave the post alone. Some started stacking the rocks, following rules laid down by clever people in the group that created a more stable, stronger post. They built the post taller and wider. They faced it with smooth sheets of stone to make it more attractive.
As the post became more elaborate and more difficult to pass, the group grew. We didn't consider this a bad result, that post was most impressive, and if the journey was held up for a time, well, one could admire the wall, and also learn a little lesson. And the group was definitely a wonderful treasure, a little fractious and crowded, perhaps, and prone to crime and other vices of large gatherings of people, but that wasn't the post's fault.
The post was a dominating feature in the group, always there, always growing, and unsurprisingly, art erupted spontaneously. People expressed themselves on the post. The post was glorified and and made ever more beautiful in diverse ways, and in many styles, and for a long time, the only art was post art.
The art was lovely, but was increasingly good art must respect the post, not challenge it. The post became a funnel for ideas, focusing them all on one subject, the post itself.
Oddly enough, while the human difficulties of living in a crowded group behind the post were never blamed on the post, the human joy and skill and love of beauty that danced across it were entirely credited to the post.
The post was worshiped.
The road was forgotten or ignored, and our group assumed the post is our destination, not simply a convenient stop on a long journey. The post is what we are all about.
Some few who managed to get over the post still called back to the group.
"Come over, the road goes on!"
"Is there another post over there that we can adore?" asked the people of the post.
"No, just a long, long road to somewhere else."
"Is it dangerous? Is it risky? Are there any little posts we can cling to?"
"I don't know! There are certainly dangers, but there are also wonders! Come on!"
More than refused, we built the post higher and stronger, we topped it with razors, and we spread stories that the other side was a land of fire and torture, and that the road led only to death. And just to prove it, people who tried to cross the post were set on fire, and killed, and we frightened everyone in the group so badly that we could even stop killing them and people still cowered in fear before the post.
The post was huge and powerful. It had grown to be symbol of art and beauty and hope and unity and terror and oppression and diversity and dreams and cruelty and kindness. It stood in our way, and echoed and amplified and personified the condition of that people camped in the shadow of the post. Even people who wanted to continue on down the road had to respect the monstrous construction, and some even said we need to revere it, and let all the people in the group know that it's all right to love a barrier that has loomed over them for thousands of years.
Some of us are looking up and beyond, though. We're saying it certainly is an impressive piece of work, but .... it's still a post.
I'm sorry, but this story doesn't have an ending yet, and I don't know how it will turn out. We've only just begun to tear down the post.
The only way we'll get past it is if more of us wake up to the fact that it is a post, and it must be overcome. Some of you may prefer to build ramps over it, or tunnel under it, or find alternative routes around it, some of you may prefer dynamite. I don't care what your strategy is, as long as more of us stop praising the post and start treating it as an obstacle.
Beyond that, who knows? But it will be exciting.
