The Fence vs. The Bamboo

Who do you think wins this battle? Over time, there's no doubt. The bamboo was planted by the Chinese family across that fence; my landlady recently said she's like the fence replaced.

As a fence it isn't much. It slants into the bamboo forest; some of the boards at ground level have rotted away. Truth to tell, the bamboo has already won this confrontation.



But why build a new fence? At this meeting place between the two yards, the bamboo is so strong and thick that it forms every bit as effective a barrier as a new fence would.



Furthermore, the bamboo is expanding. It wants more space, and it's determined to claim it.



The fence is just an old rotting fence. Myabe it used to make sense, but no more.



As long as there have been fences, they have served as useful metaphors, raising all sorts of questions about how we choose to live our lives.



Robert Frost aside, are we certain that in today's urban environment, fences make good neighbors?



In the age of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr -- the age not of excluding but of sharing?

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