Security: My Fortress Mentality

Remember when you were a kid and played "fort"?

Sometimes it was a nasty day and you were in the comfort of your house. Carefully arranging chairs or other furniture and draping a blanket or something over them to create an enclosure of sorts. Sometimes it might be just playing in a corner or behind something where there wasn't a lot of space.

Outside was a little different. The enclosures were totally different, but they were "forts" nonetheless. Growing up in the rural town of Algona just to the south of me here, we had a lot of space to play. One of my favorite times was in the middle of summer when everything was dry, including the deep drainage ditches that bordered all the roads in the town. They were all lined with tall grass that created a nice carpet when it was matted down. We'd place boards (or whatever else was handy) across the span, creating a nice, cozy space underneath. Just the tall grasses would even make a nice fort out in the middle of a field if you matted them down in a nice round pattern, creating walls of the still-standing grass. The endless mounds of blackberry bushes that grew wild in the area also created an interesting fortress. Although blackberry bushes were tall and rounded clumps of thorny vines covered with leaves on the outside, the underneath was a dark, hollow space with no vegetation. All that was under them was the thick, woody vine stalks with lots of space to walk or crawl around through if you were careful.

I guess it's something about having a space--A space that's yours and nobody else's. A space where you feel secure, whether it's real or imagined.

I get the same feelings when I do some things nowadays, but they're variations on that theme. Now I get the same feeling when I have all my stuff gathered into my space. For example, when I moved in here--When I finally had all my stuff moved inside my walls and the doors were closed and locked I felt the feeling again. Ahh... Security. Now I could do all the stuff I wanted and spread my stuff all around because I was safely within my walls. Nobody could mess with my stuff. I get another variation of the feeling when I stand behind my screened windows in the summertime--Mentally thumbing my nose at the bugs, cats, and other wandering critters--Knowing myself and my stuff is safe within my boundaries.

Where am I going with this?

Yesterday I felt the same feeling after I spent a couple hours out in the garage cutting up my firewood. After I moved it all into the living room and saw this (you can click it for a full size pic):


Maybe it's that "hoarding for winter" mentality this time, I don't know. I just know I felt the same feeling of security when I had this pile of wood in my living room.

I guess this time I'm thumbing my nose at winter.