3 Quotes from Alessandro Baricco that Will Help You Meditate About the Benefits of Boundaries
“This is the seashore. Neither land nor sea. It’s a place that does not exist.”- “Ocean Sea”
Some years ago I have read “Ocean Sea”, this splendid literary work by Italian writer Alessandro Baricco, recommended to me by my literature teachers.
What’s funny is that almost the only thing I remembered from this book, was the idea of boundaries. Boundaries are useful. Nature itself teaches us a great lesson about boundaries, like for instance in the succession of days and nights. Days end. They are followed by nights, who also end. There’s a reason for that, for the succession of days and nights to work out well.
Sometimes, I wonder if the fact that life ends isn’t also about boundaries and their efficiency on a larger scale, that we are not aware of. Maybe death is just another boundary, for this amazingly complex process that you can call “universal life”.
I find it very interesting to meditate on boundaries. I do admit that I’m not a person who knows to establish its boundaries very well. I’m always afraid that I will offend people around me. That they will think I am selfish and unkind to their needs. Because of that, I often get in trouble and my life isn’t what it should be.
I also find it very useful to set the boundaries within myself. To know what I can and what I cannot do. To understand who I am and who I am not, and cannot be.
For instance: I do not like or want or feel the need to climb Everest, to work 12 hours a day, to spend my nights partying, to spend a significant amount of time watching the news, or going shopping. Instead, I like and need to get a lot of rest. This is who I am, and I do not judge people who are not like me. They probably have their own boundaries about many things in their life.
To acknowledge and to set your boundaries — with yourself and with people around you — could be the key to a happy, fulfilled life.
The following quotes are my translation. I hope they will enlighten you a little bit about the incredible power and benefit of boundaries.
“Nature has a surprising perfection, due to a sum of boundaries. Nature is perfect because it’s not infinite. If you understand its limits, you also understand how the mechanism works. It’s all about understanding the boundaries. Take the rivers, for instance. A river can be very long, but it can’t be infinite. In order for the system to work, it has to have an ending.”
“Take a look at sunsets. You know, this thing, that the days have an ending, it’s genius. It’s a genial system. The days, and after — the nights. It seems overrated, but it’s all about geniality. There, where nature decides to settle its own boundaries, a miracle explodes. Sunsets. I have studied them for entire weeks. It’s not easy to understand, a sunset. It’s got its own timing, measurements, colors. There’s no sunset, I mean none, to resemble another sunset.”
“The Sea. It ends, also, like everything else, but you see, here also like for the sunsets, it’s difficult to isolate the idea, reassume kilometers and kilometers of rocks, beeches, sand, the seaside in one unique image, in a concept that is where the sea ends, something you can describe in a few lines.”
Don’t be afraid to set your boundaries. Don’t be afraid of who you are. Respect what you can, and what you cannot do/be. Communicate it to people in your life, in an honest and efficient way. Get really good at knowing yourself.
Therefore, live a more sincere and significant life.
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