Walls protect. Walls shield. Walls guard. Walls keep the pain and hurt away from our cores. However, walls deceive. Walls disguise. Walls impose. Walls hide. Walls constrain. Walls are a blessing and a curse.

When you and I wake up in the morning, we put on more than clothes. We cloak ourselves in lies and untruths, and wear guises that don’t fit across the shoulders. Our clothes fit, but the persona we wear underneath them is a hand-me-down like no other.

I am a locksmith. I am the key. Life is the lock. I shape myself to fit into situations like keyholes. I wear my notches and ridges like a year-round Halloween costume.

We all build walls. We are masons and brick layers, and we are building ourselves cages with no doors. Our walls are what protect us. They are what help us to fit in. They provide a barrier against the world, and protect us from harm.

I have a theory. What if no one had walls? What if each of us shed our falsities? If no one had walls, who would need them? I would have no protection, and nor would you. Your strengths and your weaknesses would be laid as bare as mine. The playing field would become level.

We play our lives like an endless game. We are constantly trying to outmaneuver one another, and from above we must bare great resemblance to “Tom and Jerry.” My walls must be taller than yours, because if they are not, I will be vulnerable. We spend our time in an endless cycle, building castles that grow ever higher and more difficult to escape from.

If all of us treated life as a sort of nude beach, there would be no troubles. Our gifts would be out in the open, as would our shortcomings. There would be no games of “King of the hill,” for there would be no hills to play upon.

Lay down your boundaries. Let your shield rest. Be who you are, and become the center of a movement. Your openness will be offsetting. It will make you vulnerable, but it will also fill you with a power unlike any other. Once you begin to live your life without walls, there are no inhibitions. You will be free to fulfill your potential, with nothing to stand in your way.