ACCOUNT OF MY DAYS
Sequence: 5
BORDERLANDS
In some of the places where boundaries meet there can be a
great convergence of traffic, hordes of people going each way--
adventurers, merchants, pilgrims, tourists. Someone's life is
hard on one side of the line, maybe it would be easier over
there. Meanwhile on the other side it's the same for someone
else. But there are other places that get the name border where
no one cares who crosses, great miles full of everything but
guards and barriers. Those who travel there are not wanderers,
they go with great purpose from place to place. But none of the
purposes have to do with finding something different where you
arrive. The distinction between one kind of borderland and the
other is like that between the realms where talk and action are
different things, and it makes sense to say, "all talk and no
action," and the zones where to speak and to act are the same
thing. There is no one to enforce the difference between the
two kinds of borderland, but seekers stuck in one find the
difference is ineradicable, two kingdoms side by side but as
separate as two worlds.