Beating the bounds is an old English custom in which the residents ceremonially walk their Parish boundary, striking or otherwise marking its landmarks. It’s a practical system for preserving local territorial knowledge, involving prayer, seasonal blessings, communal memory, and village community. Although it’s associated with medieval parish life, there are many places where the custom is still maintained. It is a way of making tangible the reaches of the village authority: what’s inside, what’s outside, and maintaining a relationship between them.
I was reminded of it reading a post by Neil Perkin last Friday, itself prompted by one by Johnnie Moore, on agency, or rather, our shrinking sense of it.
It led me to think about the idea of beating the bounds of our attention, because where we place our attention has a direct effect on our reality, as well as our felt sense of agency. There is a big difference between living life on our own terms rather than on those of other people, and it determine…