TK TK

Humans love to draw lines — both literal doodles and conceptual boundaries. What kid hasn't been in the back seat of a car and whined that her brother had "crossed over" into hostile territory? Things don't change much when you grow up; the workplace has also become a hotbed of rezoning and reorganization — with cubicle walls coming down in favor of open plans, and back up again for the sake of meeting with privacy. We draw lines, change our minds, draw new lines. In this election year, we've heard a lot of talk about boundaries, borders, lines drawn and crossed, and walls. 

Yesterday I was in Tijuana, where the Fusion team was at the beach filming some videos related to the RiseUp AS ONE concert event today. On my left, the sun was sparkling and shimmering on the rolling waves of the Pacific, a tiny toddler was laughing and stomping through the foam, and a scruffy dog was loping along, tongue hanging out. On my right, a gang of seagulls were lined up. The small bird brigade, each on one foot, was facing away from the sun, looking up the coast toward San Diego. Perched not on a jetty or an old pier post, but atop the fence that separates Mexico from the US and extends from the craggy hills through the sand on the beach and right into the ocean. As they stood at attention on top of that unnatural boundary, with the water lapping below them, I couldn't help but think of another beautiful but eerie beach scene: The iconic sequence from the 1968 film Planet Of The Apes, in which astronaut George Taylor discovers the rotting remains of the Statue of Liberty. 

We draw lines, change our minds, draw new lines. Will there someday be a world where the waves remain, but the fence is a decaying artifact?

In the spirit of thinking more deeply about boundaries, we've picked out border stories for you. Stories about courtship, hardship, bedazzling, and fake passports. Enjoy!