aking the Bridge Too far?
Last week some dams gave way and caused millions of dollars in property losses in Mid-Michigan. Having grown up along the Big Muddy—the father of Waters—the Mighty Mississippi, I learned at a tender age no to believe folks when they said they were going to change the courses of the river so that there would be ways to control flooding. You see one cubic yard of water moving at 1 mile an hour has 1000 pounds of force and well most bodies of water contain a bit more than that I thinking. So how might we deal with the impact of water? If we haven’t been chatting up a burning bush lately, I would suggest one of two methods. First. You could build a boat. You could Google “Noah’s Nook” on YouTube and start with the “How to Build an Arc” in Your Backyard” series. The first episode is devoted to gender identification of very small animals and “The cubit: how to use the divine ruler. If ship building isn’t your thing, then the best way to deal with w2ater is to figure out how to avoid the water and building a bridge is a wise choice. Speaking of bridges...the Golden Gate (as of this week) has been open83 years and this distinctive cable suspension bridge has 80,000 miles of cable in it. This is the most recognized bridge in the United States, but I’m not sure it’s the most impressive. The George Washington Bridge in New York carries more traffic and the Mighty Mac bridge to the UP in Michigan spans a “Great Lake and endures frigid winter conditions. there is London Bridge which kept falling down in London so someone bought it and built it here across the pond and you rarely hear kids singing that song anymore. there are lots of famous bridges around the world. China claims the oldest bridge still in use—a stone arch bridge—but if you’ve read this blog much you know my stance on “oldest” and China or Egypt. An Amazon tribe could be replacing the. Log over the river every 20 years and may have done so for 22,300 years but they didn’t go on facebook or twitter to tell us so it didn’t happen. finally, whenever I hear whistling for any length of time, my audio neuron clusters start firing up that little them that dominated the Bridge of the river Kwai.
I also someilmes think of. A favorite saying of my dearly departed friend Bob “Build a Bridge and Get Over it!”
So Peacxe and Joy and Bridge? It seems a some times we spend so much time defining who belongs. On either side of the river that we forget there can be many ways to build bridges instead. Bridges allow people to share talent and gifts of social joy. To people in nearby states, across the border, or maybe just across town. The solution to something that needs to happen may be just on the other side of the river and if we have the courage to build and maintain the b ridge who knows what might be created? Bridges respect the water that holds us apart, but presents opportunities to select the times when our divisions may be set aside to explore mutually beneficial connections.
In short bridges are worth building because they. Create choice and chances. As we are isolated a bit, we can take some time to build social bridges and strengthen some that have been falling down a bit. We. Can build a good bridge so that the Red Hot Chili Peppers can be “under” it or so that it becomes Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters.
So in seeking peace and joy take a minute to cover bridges—pun intended—and know that they are a valuable building block to finding peace and joy...
I am writing this on a “Thank You. Thursday because I have used the bridges built by others and hope to commit some times to building some myself.
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