Thin Lines

"Step on a crack, break your mother’s back." It’s an old childhood saying, but one I think was coined to install the perfect amount of fear into us. Not too much fear to paralyze us from moving forward, but just enough fear to keep us from running full speed ahead off a cliff. Lines have always been in my life. When I was a kid I was warned by my father not to antagonize my sisters, not to push it and cross the line. When I was a teenager, I was penalized for overstepping the line on a basketball foul shot. It was just a toe, but it was crossing the line. Stepping ON it was ok, but stepping OVER it was a no-no. Now as an adult I find myself drawing the lines. I teach my dog the boundaries of his backyard by showing him where the invisible lines lie. Venture outside these safety lines and he is firmly reprimanded.

I can think of at least a dozen instances of where thin lines are drawn. For example, there is a thin line between...

love and hate
romance and stalking
persistent and obsessed
sweet and pathetic
genius and insanity
opinionated and obnoxious
honest and rude
generous and being a door mat
assertive and pushy
understanding and tolerant
standing out and being an attention whore
sensitive and hyper-sensitive
praise and kissing ass
being real and being really annoying

Thin lines exist because we need them to exist. They rein us in, keep us from getting too carried away. They cap our stupid mouth, curb our spontaneous actions and put our emotions into proper perspective when our hearts spiral out of control. Thin lines calm us down and keep us grounded. Thin lines place limits on us because despite what all the starry-eyed dreamers will tell you, sometimes we need to be limited when it comes to certain things in life. We need limitations to keep ourselves clinically sane. And to keep from making complete jackasses out of ourselves and getting into too much trouble - that's always helpful too.

As we journey through life you will find yourself obeying existing lines, drawing new lines, testing the lines and occasionally overstepping the lines. Overstepping a line is always a gamble because you never know exactly what’s on the other side or how it will turn out. But yet if you’re anything like me, you believe that without risk there is no reward. So I take chances. Sometimes I put my toe on the line and other times I just leap right over it. And just like during my freshman basketball free throw, even if my effort wasn’t counted and I didn’t win the game, at least I took the shot.