Contemplating walls

A buddy was telling me this morning about a book called "Spirit of the Rainforest," by Mark Andrew Ritchie. It's an account of a chief of the Yanomamo tribe of Amazonia who was converted to Christianity. In it, he recounts his people's never-ending cycle of war and revenge.

In one instance, he describes a clan who fortified their village with two concentric walls and other elaborate defenses designed to stave off a counterattack, only to be massacred in their sleep by one of their own with kinship ties to their enemy.

This called to mind other incidents I've read of medieval castles in Europe, where the walls built to defend people actually proved their undoing.

Sometimes, it was--as in the case of the Yanomamo--a traitor within the walls.

Sometimes, the walls themselves were the enemy, because they prevented the defenders from foraging for food and other supplies.

Sometimes, sadly, would-be reinforcements were also kept from coming to the aid of those within the walls.

Perhaps, it's not an altogether bad thing when walls come tumbling down . . .

Side note: if you want to see some REAL walls come tumbling down, check out the implosion scheduled in Ocoee this Saturday at 6:45am. Supposed to be the biggest such event since the demolition of the old Orange County courthouse in downtown Orlando, forever immortalized in film by the Lethal Weapon franchise.