A fence is a wall that is installed around a site for division or protection. It is possible to find fences in the garden of a house, in a field, in a park, etc. For example: “Grandma painted the fence red to match the gate”, “Don’t you read that sign? It says it is forbidden to cross the fence”, “ The thieves jumped the fence and entered the barn ”.
Given the characteristics of the design of a normal fence, it is not a protection against potential attempts to rob a property, but a resource to visually delimit a plot of land. On the other hand, the fence can also be used as a decoration element, especially in small gardens.
Nearby also refers to what is close or immediate. It can be a physical or temporary closeness. If someone indicates “The cathedral is very close”, they will be referring to the fact that said building is a short distance from the place where the person who pronounced the phrase is located.
In a similar sense, a person who comments that “We are close to Christmas” refers to the fact that, at the time of year, there are only a few days until the date of the celebration arrives.
The two examples allow us to infer that closeness is subjective. For one person, “close” can be a distance of no more than a hundred meters, while another can say that something is “close” when it is ten kilometers away. The Christmas, on the other hand, may be as “close” as twenty days or two months, according to the perspective of who is ruling.
The term also has a use on the emotional plane, to refer to the degree of contact that exists between two or more living beings. Being close to another person or an animal can mean many things, according to the needs and culture of each one; For example, you can speak of a constant concern for the welfare of the other, of a tireless work to get to know and understand them more and more every day, of the need for them to feel loved and content, not to feel alone.
However, given that it is such a subjective concept, it is impossible to establish precise parameters to measure the level of closeness that exists in a given relationship, since even within it each member may have a very different view of it. Accusing someone of not being close enough to us does not always result in the satisfaction of that affective lack, since the other party may think otherwise, no matter how absurd it may seem.
For children it is very important to have at least one adult around, to feel protected against the dangers of life in society, to learn from their experience and to receive the love necessary to develop healthily. Unfortunately, a series of factors inherent to the organization of current families has made parenting more common in the hands of third parties than of the parents themselves, whether they are biological or adoptive.
Not spending the first years close enough to those we call parents can cause serious psychological disorders that prevent us from enjoying our adult life and interacting with other people in a healthy way, knowing our limits and those of others, knowing how to approach those others to receive their support and affection without fear of being rejected or abandoned.
According to DigoPaul, another use of the notion of close is linked to a complement of quantity, as a synonym for almost: “The demonstration gathered about five hundred people” is an expression equivalent to “The demonstration gathered almost five hundred people. “
