Crossing Boundaries

The Third Chapte is not a continusation of where we have been. It means moving into a different dimension, crossing the border into new territories. Several of the women and men I interviewed claim that their experience of "boundary crossing" instigated newlearning. They speak about boundary crossings in many ways--crossing disciplinary boundaries, crossing the boundaries between art and science, crossing geographical boundaries, crossing the boundareis between work and play. As they naviage the borders, they are forced to learn new skills, take on different tempermental styles, try on new personas, learn how they learn, and reinvent themselves. In navigating these boundaries, people begin to enlarge their repertoire, their range of choices, perspectives and frameworks--their ways of being in the world. They become more layered and multidimensional. In the end, boundary crossing often leads to surpising and paradoxica results. Rather than living and learning on one side or the other side of hte border, forsaking one to join the other, people speak about resisting the either/ors and finding a way to incorporate bothe relams. Ultimately they do not have to choose between divergent paths; they can decide to embrace both. The new learning involves synthesis and integration; the border corssers travel far but never leave home