Bringing Down Fences

The people don’t really know how they ended up on the mesa. They only knew that they lived there. It was a large and lush mesa, quite lovely indeed.

Early on they discovered the edges. The drop was spectacular, and certainly fatal to anyone who stepped off the edge. So they did what any rational person would do; they constructed fences. These were important fences. They would prevent deaths. They were good, strong fences placed on the various sides of the mesa. They even named the edges. There was Murderous Drop and Adulterous Cliff and Deception Point. Ten fences in all went up, and the people were happy.

One day, the leadership got to thinking. Wouldn’t it be wise to keep people away from the edge entirely? They were pretty sure the fences would keep people from death, but it was still possible for the younger ones to climb the fence and ultimately fall to their death. It had happened on occasion. What were they to do? Perhaps it would be good to put another set of fences inside the fences on the edge. This would give a margin for error, a first line of defense, so to speak. Nearly everyone thought this was wise, so they set about putting up a second set of fences around the mesa. Inside of the fence at Purity Falls they placed a fence they called “Separation Point”. At the Idol’s Crag they put in the “Non-smoking Place”. All the fences were fortified with a new, inner fence. Of course, it inconvenienced some people. They liked to go to the fence and look out over the edge and enjoy the view. But there weren’t a lot of them, so it was certainly worth the extra layer of protection.

Time passed, and things seemed to be better. There seemed to be fewer incidents of people climbing over the outer fence and dying because, after all, it was much more effort. The complaints died down as the people that had enjoyed going to the edge died out, so all seemed well.

Still, there were still those who went as close to the edge as possible, and there were some who even climbed both fences and fell to their deaths. So the leadership met again and discussed what could be done. Someone pointed out that there were favorite paths to the edge -- ways that people commonly took to get there. Perhaps if they would put up another fence, just across those paths, they could stop this continuing trickle of problem areas. This seemed good to them, so new fences went up. The “Touch Not Gate” was located on the approach to Coveting Heights. “The Door of Modesty” was placed strategically across from Adulterous Cliff. Several other strategically located fences blocked other approaches. It was all working out nicely.

It was some time later that someone on the Board brought up the fact that other people had been erecting their own fences. After the initial surprise and, of course, soothing the bruised egos, they decided that it was probably a good idea. A little bit of personal safety would probably go a long way. After all, there were still people who ended up climbing over the fences and plummeting to their deaths. It couldn’t hurt.

So they thought, until one day they caught Robinson and his friend up at the top of the fence at 6th Day Crevasse. Fortunately, someone caught them and hauled them down just before they would have tumbled to their deaths.

“What were you thinking?” the elders demanded. “What made you climb over those fences?”

“Well,” Marissa responded, kicking at the ground, “there are so many fences all around the mesa. We have been climbing over fences for years. We never suffered any ill effects from them. Why would we think those ones at the edge would be any different?”

It was Harold who suggested it, after that. He was met with shock and dismay. Tear down the fences? How could they do that? Where would they find safety? Surely those outer fences weren’t enough. But Harold prevailed. It was a lengthy process. There seemed to be endless barriers. Those with their own private fences were the most stubborn. It actually took years, much longer than it had to put them up in the first place. But little by little, the fences went down. It was better, they figured, to leave fences that meant something than to confuse the issue with their own fences.

Funny thing. When the fences went down, and all that was left was the outer railings, the numbers of people going over the edge decreased. Why? Apparently when people could see the effects of those outer fences and the consequences of traversing them, they decided not to do it themselves. How odd!