We walk them, stand in them and write them. We recite them, deliver them and sometimes, drop them. We have lines of control, linebackers and line dancing. Some are long, some are short, some are for special people and the rest are for the rest. Nobody knows quite exactly what they are. But, that doesn’t stop us from following them and spreading them everywhere.
Our exposure to lines starts at an early age. First, we learn to colour within the lines and get reprimanded if we ever touch the space outside them. Of course, as we age, the world tells us to ‘think outside the box’. This dichotomy begets the question all philosophers have struggled with — Why can’t the world just make up its mind?
We learn to combine lines into various shapes which form these weird things called ‘words’. Lines, in an instant, open up a whole new world for self-expression. They come together to teach us about worlds filled with witches and gingerbread houses. They teach us about an invisible Sky-man who doesn’t understand the concept of privacy. Lines can inform, teach and even punish. We bring them together in various combinations to learn language, mathematics and science.
Sometimes, we go and invent new ways to mix lines leading to progress and innovation. Lines are truly the gateway to the expansion of the mind. That’s why they are the preferred format for ingesting cocaine
We took the abstract concept of lines and made it deeply human by creating ‘queues’. With queues, we are no longer separated from lines but are one with them. Like creating its own distinct art and languages, every culture has also created its way of creating human lines. Americans leave a space the size of a small apartment between each other. Indians stand so close to each other that you’d know what the person behind you had for breakfast, how many breaths they take per second and what brand of soap they used to shower with in the morning. It seems lines are the foundation beneath the famous Indian concept of ‘unity in diversity’.
We became one with lines and lines returned the favour by enabling us to express and create things no one had ever experienced or created before. We used them in music, poetry and the theatre. We even created paintings using just lines. Some paintings with more lines than others. It doesn’t seem to be the case that more the lines, the better the art though. In all art, there seems to be a sweet spot for the number of lines used. Too many and it becomes an uncontrolled, undecipherable mess. Too less and the artist’s emotions remain unsaid and ambiguous.
Lines also seem to have a moral centre attached to them. We see some lines as good and some lines as bad. Lines for food? Bad. Lines for phones? Good. Lines for seeing a singer in person? Good. Lines for seeing a cultist in person? Bad. Learning lines? Good. Learning to do lines? Bad. We also have this innate ability to decide how to use lines. People, who will line up in an orderly fashion for caffeine, will become a rowdy, mob when lining up for alcohol. Just as it is for humans, different drugs have wildly different effects on lines.
Nowhere is the importance of lines more pronounced than in professional sporting events. Lines control everything and keep players in check. Lines humble even the best and richest athletes on the planet. Players get cheered or booed depending on what lines they cross. There is a special importance reserved for the people who take those little chalk machine and draw lines on the courts, fields and pitches of the world. What if one day all those line-drawers went on strike? Would the sporting world come to a standstill? What would be the state of millions of fans, thousands of players and the billions of dollars that depend on them? It would be madness, utter madness. Lines in their absence have the power to bring human civilization to its knees
Lines have shaped human life for centuries, and we would do well to respect them. Lines have never asked much from us and as gratitude, we have given very little. Maybe we should start realizing how important lines have been and do something nice for them. Retiring ‘straight line’ from the human phrase lexicon sounds like a good start. After all, why would you use an adjective to describe something which is the specific quality of that object anyway? You don’t say ‘cold ice’ or ‘unethical capitalism’, do you?
