Minnesota has finally hit COLD. Currently as I sit inside with both hands around COFFEE CUP it is 19 below zero. The coldest temps that we have had yet this year. The kind of temp that makes Al (hubby) and I talk about moving to some place warm like Florida, at least perhaps eventually like snow birds….gone for the cold months, back for my favorites Spring – Fall. It is not an easy topic for me because I have so many attachments to my home town.
In the book, Between The World And Me, which my book club will be reading and reviewing tomorrow evening there is a line that works into this topic…
We did not choose our fences.
In the book, Ta-Nehisi Coates is writing to his son about the ways of our world and in this line he is referring to the fences that contain us. More pointedly he is referring to the fences of being born Africa American, however as I look around my home this morning… the home that I have lived in since my mom built it after the fire in 1980, the home I inherited after her accident in 1996, the home that sits next to the property where I had lived since I was 3 and used to play with my sister in the back yard that is now the home of our business; I believe we all have fences. The same home that I celebrated my teenage birthdays with friends and cake, where I spent hours talking with my mom about all the things that teenage girls talk to their moms about, the home where I raised my two boys from ages 6 and 8, the home where we laughed and worked on school projects and made Harry Potter capes out of blankets and watched movies as a family and baked cookies and painted bedrooms football team colors and planted gardens and completed years of homework and celebrated school sports wins with popcorn mixed with gummy bears and m and m’s, and handed over keys to first cars and sat up into the night talking about first love and heart break, the home of laughing until it hurt, holding tight to the past, and the home that now has 2 trees planted in the back yard in memory of my son…
We all have fences.
Well.
Wow.
Where the heck did that come from?
I am going to need a second (who am I kidding) third cup of coffee.
Anyhoo. I think fences will be an excellent discussion point for our group tomorrow. As this book is different than anything we have ever read, I have been creating some good discussion topics. I love books that stretch us, think our of the box – or in this case out of the fence.
What fences do you have in your life?
Book Journey 
I think this is a beautiful and very thought provoking post. I’ll look forward to hearing about your book group meeting. Stay warm and go have another cup of coffee! LOL
I have similar fences. I live right next door to my parents where I grew up. The land they built their house on was the land my mom grew up on before it burned down in a fire and they built right over where it once stood. It’s FAMILY land and family is so important to me. I have grandchildren here that I don’t want to be away from for a few months at a time. My son is buried here. I don’t feel like it’s a fence though, I feel like it’s an anchor, keeping me moored. Keeping me from drifting away.
It was 25 here when we walked this morning and we thought it was cold.
I’m going to have to think about the fences in my life.
No fences as to location. I’ve never felt tied to any one place. My family was rather mobile when I was young, I lived in California, Missouri and Oklahoma then back to California. When I married my husband was in the army and we lived all over the world. I learned that as long as we were together that was home.
Even though I grew up in a Central Valley town, on a farm, I left as soon as I could, going to SF, then Sacramento, and then farther down the Central Valley to Fresno, For a while, I lived in a foothill community. Probably my fences are those that have kept me in California, no matter how many places I went within the state.
Oh, there is supposed to be a period after Fresno! LOL
Fences…I always though that going back home to my parents house was a sort of a touchstone…sort of like a fence. But…with them gone…when I do go back…looking at our house with another family in it…just makes me sad.
My husband is just driving out of the airport now…in Minnesota somewhere…he is shocked by the cold! Minneapolis Airport?
Wow, it is cold there still this morning! My brother was at the Vikings game yesterday. I haven’t spoken to him, he is sad, but it sure looked cold there too. It is not below zero here yet, though I suppose it will be before winter is over. Ugh! I think we all have fences metaphorically speaking. Some built by us, some built by others. I really want to read your book club read!
Thought you guys would like to know (if you didn’t) that this book won an Alex Award at the ALA YMA! 😀 You can see it on the list that’s below the video. Scroll way down:
http://ala.unikron.com/2016/?utm_content=bufferfbb24&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
And “fence” is such a good term, invisible though very real. My fences are similar as far as this house and this area, especially since it seems my son and d-in-law may be buying a house in this county. As much as I’d LOVE to be away from many things where I live—wanting to be in cleaner air, less congestion and hustle-bustle, a better ratio of kind vs. inconsiderate people, etc.—I don’t want to be that far away from the people I love.
That question will spark quite a bit of discussion!
That was an amazing post! Thank you for sharing. As well as being healing for you, this post will really get people thinking. Obviously this book has touched you deeply, I think it’s worth reading now so I will get a copy. Love and hugsxxxxx
your column was both so sentimental..how all the property is tied to you and your family..and soo sad….so many tragic events. your courage is amazing. your pain with Justin is palpable. many prayers to you as you continue on your journey.
This post reminds me of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning play “Fences,” in which Wilson talks a lot about the fences we build that separate us from our loved ones. I guess there are lots of different kinds of fences.
Interesting question.Our individual fences are as unique as we are, which is good, but it can mean not understand someone else’s mindset, which is bad. Physical, mental, spiritual, emotional – so many fences for such a short period of existence…