My friend and I were playing in the field. We found some stones and began stacking them. We’d go home to our family, have dinner, then for some reason we’d come back to the field the next day and the day after that and keep stacking stones.
Soon, as we continued stacking them, they became taller and taller then still taller some more and a wall began to form. Others from the village soon noticed and before we knew it they began stacking stones of their own right beside us. The wall grew and changed and evolved, but had a history and told a story of our community; of our shared experience. It became an organic expression of time and effort and people would always learn new things about the universe and about themselves when gazing upon it.
Then one day my friend realized that sometimes others around us were better at stacking stones than he was. He saw that, even though many of his stones were perfectly fine, some were clearly mistakes. He was embarrassed, especially when his work was compared to that of others who’d been practicing stone placement for a very long time; much longer than he and me.
My friend then asked all of us in the community to remove his stones, to pull them from the wall. He kept advocating for us to rip out his stones and pretend they never existed, but we could not. If his stones were removed, all of the others placed on top of them would become unstable. If his stones were removed, the whole wall would crumble and fall and nobody wanted that, not even him.
So, my friend had to live with it. He had to recognize that, even though his stones weren’t placed perfectly, they were critical to the structure of the wall itself. It could not exist in its truest form without them. Removing them would ruin the work of everyone else and my friend had to use it as an opportunity to learn from his errors and become a better version of himself.
Your posts are part of our wall. Like a tapestry or quilt, it would never be the same without them. We’re sorry you want them removed, but we’re also thankful you shared them with us and appreciate what you’ve contributed, but we can’t pull that thread or remove those stones no matter how many times you ask. We’re a part of the wall too, and that just wouldn’t be fair.