The excellent WordPress people have come up with a new challenge for us: a photo that reflects the theme of the week. The last theme mentioned was “boundaries.” So here is my contribution…a freshly built wheelchair ramp to the deck that connects with our front door.
Boundaries - newly constructed wheelchair ramp. Photo: Sandra Bell Kirchman
I can think of several fantasy applications for this, but the story sticks in my mind about how an arrogant girl sneers at the difficulties of others. Then because of an insult she passes on to a child, the mother of the child, a witch from another world, throws a curse on her. The girl finds herself transported to this world where everything is similar to her world except that people in wheelchairs and using canes and crutches are considered second class citizens.
This would have to be a short story, not a novel, and a LOT of character development would have to be done, but it fits the idea of how we impose our own boundaries upon ourselves by accepting others’ evaluations of us.
Does anyone else have an idea for a fantasy story regarding the above picture? Doing this exercise is a good way to get those old creative juices flowing and one way to overcome writer’s block.
Fantasyfic 
Oh, my thoughts about a story: She was trapped in this world in a wheelchair. If she just rolled down that ramp, it would lead to a portal to her world. She love this world, full of color, the sun was so warm. The other world, cold, dark, colorless. She would float and be free of the chair..but was it worth it?
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Oooh, good story idea, Connie. I have all kinds of questions about why she was trapped in a wheelchair – oh, maybe she was a flyer in her own world and had never learned to walk. Why don’t you write that story – not my idea about being a flier but the idea you set out. I’d really like to know the outcome 😛
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boundaries:interesting word. stated here it is used as limitless and hopes to make one moveable. this week i have been contemplating boundaries in the opposite. emotionally i feel like my boundaries are weak and to many are asking to much of me. i have a hard time saying NO. i need boundaries to keep my power with me…i need to build a fortress around me. boundaries was my word of the week contemplation…funny you should mention it here in this way…
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I think I know what you are talking about, Danette. There are times when I know I need to say no, especially when I am swamped, and I say yes anyhow. Afterwards I wished I had a big shoe so that I could kick myself, and I wonder how I will ever fit in what I have been asked to do. Recently, this happened with an animal rescue agency. They asked if I could build a website for them. I said yes, because our area needs such an agency desperately. Ever since then I have run into problems and wish I had never said yes. I’m not sure I need a fortress around me though, since that would keep out the people and energies I want 😛 I think I just need to strengthen my own convictions and decisions. Otherwise I undermine myself. That’s the way I see it for me, anyhow, and sometimes it even works 🙂
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Great ideas flowing here…I feel empowered to think outside the ‘boundaries’ of my own life. I love the different pts of view. For me, as I read the ideas shared, I was transported to Egypt and began thinking about the boundries we’ve seen this weekend fall away for its people. Maybe she arrived in the middle of the protests, in a wheelchair, and realized her boundaries were not as limiting as she had thought…that to be ‘bound’ to a chair, one that moves, is more freeing than to be ‘bound’ in one’s mind.
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Oh nice suggestion, HQ. I like that story a lot. Interesting comparison with Egypt too. I never thought of that, but it’s a timely and thought-provoking idea. Thanks for sharing.
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