Dead End

Nowhere is a somewhere too for something, for someone. A dead end is an end. A home. A lair. The end of the affair. A nadir. A start of something new. A where to from here?

(A wall is not negation.)

(A wall is paint over drywall or plaster and lath, or wood, or a dozen layers of wallpaper, or whatever.)

(Behind that paint, that material, is another space. You can access it. Use a hammer. Knock your way through the space.)

(Everything in life asks you to disregard that space. A wall's a wall. It means no, and no means no. Hang something on it. Check it for trapdoors, hidden panels. But it's a wall. You can't walk through it except in dreams. But you can break it open.)

(Not to do so is good citizenship: it signals your acceptance of the social contract.)

(We don't go breaking through each others' walls in a society.)

(Except at parties that get out of control, like in my dorm room in college where my roommate might get really drunk and start perforating the walls with his fists.)

(Cue the Robert Frost quote about fences.)

(At least we don't go breaking through walls without a good reason.)

(But not doing so is too easy: it signifies too much respect for the maker, for the writer, for the rules. You're a reader. You're a maker of meaning. Don't you want to get behind whatever you can get behind?)

(Now you are a hacker.)