If rules only exist to be broken, then so do boundaries. After all, a boundary is just a rule in space. And there are no absolute boundaries. Why would there be? The cell membrane needs to keep out biological riffraff, for sure, but also to ingest and excrete. Academic disciplines stultify when their borders become hermetic. Human empathy is strengthened, not weakened, by strong personal boundaries.

Boundaries end up facilitating exchanges as much as blocking them, and some of the most productive activities happen in their vicinity. A concept as relevant to us today as ever.

Welcome to “Boundaries.”