Oct 8, 2011
Sunday 30th October
You’ve probably come across the story of the Welsh hill farmer...
You’ve probably come across the story of the Welsh hill farmer who visits a giant sheep farm in Australia. He notices that there are no fences and asks the Australian about it. His host tells him ‘Out here we don’t need fences, we have wells.’ Living without fences is not all that easy when you’re used to them. It’s a different set of values at work. The good Samaritan story is about a way of life where the old walls begin to fall.
A mugged man is rescued not by the people you’d expect to help but by the person you’d expect to leave him to rot. It’s a boundary buster isn’t it? Maybe that’s why it keeps its power – because building boundaries comes so naturally to us; we’re in you’re out; them and us. Maybe good fences don’t really make good neighbours - maybe they just preserve our fantasy of self reliance. The last thing the mugged man needed was a strong fence to die behind.
Category: Blog