Beware Bars

Bars? Not the wet bars but the ones that people use to fence themselves in and keep others out. Akin to metal bars, they perform the same task. Families are famous for this. I know families who keep their doors open and welcome in non-members to become part of their circle. They are joyous and free with their love. But there are others of a darker kind who imprison themselves behind  close and hard bars so impenetrable  that a butterfly, no matter how elegant, could enter. This tragic fortunately, infrequent breed are proud of their fortresses and work hard to keep their  "traditions" or bars, impervious. Try to enter, try to be invited and you must first be scrutinized closely. If you are a renegade who dares befriend one of their number without their specific approval or you have taken one of the group away as yours, you will be ostracized. The insiders will do all that they can to exclude you. It's tribal law. Nothing stands in their way, not cruelty or gossip or tricks or taunts. They revel in their  exclusivity and make it so difficult for a non-conforming member to engage one of theirs that it may force the opposer to make a choice, them or us.  It is the subject of many a poem, a tale or drama. This kind of thing sounds like a medieval fairy story but when you look around, you see that it is not fictional. The one I am viewing at the moment is fraught with self-designed tradition and not of the good kind.  It  forces the daring  member to suffer a great deal in making a choice. He must either break with them and go to the one he loves or forever lose them. Fairness and justice mean nothing behind the bars of tradition. Protection of their own is what matters.  Yes, it is wrong, possibly immoral, but there seems no law to deny it. Invisible bars are the hardest to pass through.