There were no borders within me
This morning I wake up and the word that comes to me is “border.” For those who dream of a world without borders, I would invite you to be patient.
I was born 24 kilometers from Ontario. On Rural Road 7, which is now Route 388 in Duparquet, the last village before the border. Men came and went from lumber or mining jobs. We never talked about borders. The word was not in our vocabulary.As a teenager I wrote about freedom, I picked up poems about freedom. I had taken my freedom by the horns in the 60s, made love at an age that could have put my lover in danger. I had not been raped, I had said yes. Yes to contraception, yes to living alone and to other lovers. I said yes to life, to the plane, to discovery and to the entire world. There were no borders within me. I was born a free woman, in a free country. Free to think and speak and remain naive. Naive until I learned about humanity.
In Chile I understood that I could no longer speak too loudly about my freedom and that, until all human beings find their freedom, I must remain humble about it. Until there would be no borders. (border-wiki)
I knew borders. I lived in Germany, Italy, France, spent months in Turkey and in England and with my Canadian passport, I crossed borders only with the pleasure of collecting stamps like a star on a page of my school notebook . At 21 years old, in the boat between Israel and Italy I met a woman leaving the country with her seven children. Her husband stayed behind because they had not finished to reimburse the country of the the aid received when they had chosen to make Israel their home. We are not free to live where we want, free to choose that place on earth where we feel good or feel better. I had, for a while, a country house on the border with the USA, I was going to walk in the small path in the woods. Then one day I took on a guy who was running away from military service in Vietnam. At the time, I couldn’t imagine what his nervousness might have been. Today, I might have taken better care of him. I don’t remember where I left him in the city, if he had a contact to go to. Then another time, I let a friend organize a meeting so that a family could join theirs in the USA. Sometimes, I tell myself that I should go to see this little path which should no longer be a secret because I imagine that the few inches of stones that allowed us the border must be a wall or a forest.Since then, so many stories of borders, walls, killings, limits, that the word has become a pain to hear. The dream of freedom for humanity has lost its colors like an old icon in an old Orthodox church.
In the Caucasus, history has thickened and strengthened the borders. I thought I was on the road to Central Asia. You still have to laugh at my naivety and mistake. I looked at the map, not the airlines’ route. Here in Georgia, I am at a 7 hours flight from Central Asia
Outlying the Caucasus is an island within its mountains. A fragile island. They are like people who are strengthening their banks before the water rises. They are turning to Europe to solidify theirs. In this mountain islands, border conflicts are still present. It was difficult for Russia to let go of Georgia with its food garden, its wine, its subtropical climate near the black sea. They had to keep a place to put their feet in the water. Must be difficult to live without having passages to go and invade and get what others have that you want.
Outlying the Caucasus in an island within its mountains. A fragile island. They are like people who are strengthening their banks before the water rises. They are turning to Europe to solidify theirs. In this mountain islands, border conflicts are still a present-day affair. It was difficult for Russia to let go of Georgia with its food garden, its wine, its subtropical climate near the black sea. They had to keep a place to put their feet in the water. And it seems difficult for them to live without having passageway. And Russia does like feeding conflicts left and right. So we have Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia and the “Nagorno-Karabakh” conflit between Armenia and Azerbaijan. So, long live Wiki for you to learn more about these conflits. I am not looking for wars and I will not go to see these borders but borders, there will be. (the history of borders.) I am looking here for a rural family and an urban family. I have been listening and there are borders between women and men, between the young and the old, between those in power and their people, between the mountains and the valley, between the countryside and the city.
But all agree on one thing: eat well and drink well and Georgia is a beautiful country from west to east.
Yesterday I rested my body. I had to move and that meant descent and ascent stairways with the suitcases. Two meetings and probably 4-5 kilometers of walking. Plus the fact that the workout at the gym was quite beefy. This is the occasion to visit another neighborhood. I am also looking forward to get out of the city. I await answers, meetings, comments, confirmations. I patiently and wisely observe my impatience. But I am still not at 52 days waiting as I did in China. A record that, I do not think, I will not break here.
