GOOD FENCES

Maybe because they look like teeth. Maybe because that's what I grew up with. But I like a good fence.

For the purpose of enclosure. Of separation. Of ownership. And boundaries.

On the other hand, a wall is more permanent. No see through. Seclusion. Exclusion.

Frost said it perhaps best in his poem "Mending Wall". The two neighbors separated by more than a physical boundary. One says "Something there is that doesn't love a wall." His neighbor responds twice "Good fences make good neighbors."

One place I like a wall is at a baseball park. Fences are for Little League. Now, don't ever think that there's a worse wall/fence than the plastic garbage bag wall in Minneapolis. That is just plain wrong. But then domes are, too.

I think had Robert Frost lived to see domed stadiums for baseball and football that he may have penned a poem or two about them.

So I'll try: In open air is baseball best

Likewise the orbital football.

Weather is as much a necessary part

As the plays drawn up on coaches' charts.

I think I better stop for fear of a lawsuit from some Frostian relative. But I'll take a fence over a wall. Most of the time.