From Gravity and Grace by Simone Weil:
Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. ... Every separation is a link.
Sometimes, my patients use the word "wall" when they tell me of their struggles to communicate with their partners, bosses, relatives, or friends. The image conveys a sense of frustration, hopelessness; the "wall" becomes the aporia (the no-way-out) for many who then desist from communicating. Simone Weil's statement is clever; she invites us to ponder the possibility that that which seems to separate us may become an instrument of communication. What do my walls say about me? What do their walls say about them? What are the fears that build up walls? Could it be possible to knock on the walls, to be in touch with the fear, and realize that we are not alone, that the Other stands close on the other side? - Edgard Danielsen, PhD, LP
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