india is covered with walls. We are staying inside the HMI compound, surrounded by a wall which on one side faces the neighbor’s wall which is topped with wire. Inside we enjoy green grass, profuse flowering plants, quiet peace, interrupted only by the five times daily Muslim call to prayer and chanting from the Hindu temples nearby. We have visited the Taj Mahal and other tombs, surrounded by gardens, and enclosed by walls. This leads me to reflect on what a physical wall keeps in…and keeps out. I am thinking about the ways those walls represent social, cultural, and religious boundaries. And, with the current American debate about a border wall, I am thinking hard about when walls are better broken than repaired, when the sound of another community’s prayers might drift into our household to bless everyone.