On Walls

Walls are interesting. They are built fort different reasons: To divide properties, to claim territory, to protect, to secure, to decorate or to show off. When I talk of walls, I mean fences, which are walls made so differently as there are personalities behind them. Walls also serve as psychological barometers whereby one can read the reasons for the different choices for which walls are built.


Tall, thick walls are protective in nature. This is the kind that surrounds Forbes Park and Corinthian Gardens, hiding behind them vast wealth and people who are insecure about their own life styles. In Ayala Alabang Village very few fences are built alike. Some are too expensive, enough to feed the entire squatter's village for months. Others are too intricate and too artistic that a portion of which is worth displaying in an art gallery; some are high and covered by green ivy; multicolored bougainvillea blossoms crown a few.

There are mysteries behind walls and there are walls that are mysterious. There is that moderately high wall that allows only several roofs of several houses inside to be seen outside. It covers an area big enough to constitute a Barangay. There is that fence only about two feet so low that you can see everything inside it, yet, it creates a kind of demarcation that makes onlookers wonder. Behind that fence is a house that uses no curtains. Passersby can see happy people inside enjoying their meal.

I appreciate fence less houses. They look so friendly and so inviting one can almost feel the warmth of the dwellers.