The columns of the colonnade, themselves a border, transport us physically and in our imagination. We discuss and walk by walls and gates. We talk about borders for protection or borders that restrict us. Borders and walls that form borders. What was the effect when the wall fell in Berlin? How about the wall in Belfast?
We walk together through Belfast over zoom. From what I understood, the wall in Belfast is there more for protection. People fear the known violence of the past. For some, bringing down the wall in Belfast is not worth the risk of violence and trauma. I realize we can make assumptions about walls. Sometimes we need a wall to feel calm. When we walked into the colonnade across the border of the pedestrian path outside the space of the colonnade, there is a feeling of relief because there is a sense of detachment or safety from the outside world.
When I think of my family, borders and locations were lost in through history and immigration yet the language remained, altering our sense of self as we left those places. The language created a border through time, though we eventually lost the language also. Those borders are long in the past, consciously; yet, I wonder how I have it in me unconsciously? How might the Berlin wall have affected me and my family had we never left? What would my freedoms have been?