Boundaries and borders

When I was in the fifth grade we spent a few weeks studying the United Nations. Everyone in the class chose a country to learn about and at the end of our unit we dressed in national costumes and had a big party. We even got our picture in the paper (the clipping is somewhere in a box upstairs).

Ever since then (political realities aside) I've found the notion of truly having a "United Nations" kind of appealing--not so much the organization, but really a world that was united and where nations and boundaries weren't so important, a nation where I could move to another country as easily as I can move to another state. I don't always get the whole nationalism/patriotism/ my-country-is-better-than yours schtick and the posturing that goes with it.

What made me think of all this was thinking while I was showering this morning (as I've said before, I do some of my best thinking in the shower) about Woman Warrior (aka LD#1) and the GS and about the difficulty of their situation. And I was thinking about the absurdity of nations and states and boundaries and borders and passports and visas. And I envisioned a world in which there were no such boundaries, where people could come and go freely, and I thought, why not?

Okay, I know I'm an idealist, and I'm sure that there are a thousand pragmatic reasons why that would be difficult if not impossible. Even as I type this I realize how ridiculous it seems on some levels. People are way too invested in power and control among other things. But just imagine if we could spend our resources on making the world a better place to live--everywhere--instead of arming ourselves to protect against whoever the perceived enemy is--just think what we could do.