Is there a there there over there at the Great Wall?

When you've been to the Great Wall as many times as I have, you start to think about that old cliche: "there is no there there."

Most people would say that the Great Wall would decidedly not qualify as having no "there there."

Because the Great Wall is there. And clearly the Great Wall is a there there. No?

Well, not for the soldiers stationed there during the Ming Dynasty. In those days it wasn't like serving a term and then you go home. In those days when you're there, you're there. For life. For those guys there probably was no there there at the Wall.

And not for the countless and nameless workers who built the Wall. To say no more: there was no there there for them.

And not for the many hawkers there who try to sell you souvenirs ("I give you best price! I give you best price!") while you're there experiencing your there. For those poor people, there probably isn't any there there over there. At least not the there you seem to think is there.

So how come for all those guys the Wall has no there there?

And what happens to the nature of the there you feel there when you are there, if that there is not uniformly there for all? If it is not there for all, are you sure it's there for you?

I think about these things.

Just what is the there there in the cliche "there's no there there"? -- when even for places with a there there the there is not there for some?

Is there a there that would be a there for everybody?

And where is that there that would have such a there?

Where is there a THERE to end all theres?

I think about these things.

Logos2Go 2

Corinthians 12:2-4 I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows;) such a one caught up to the third heaven. ... he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable things said which it is not allowed to man to utter.