Bridges to Somewhere?

Bridges. As I was mulling this post, of course the first thing that came to my mind was The Bridges of Madison County. I’m happy to say I never read the book or saw the movie. I did read the Doonesbury version (The Washed Out Bridges of Madison County) in the comics. It was pretty funny.

When I think about olden day bridges, it is kind of amazing. People needed to get across something, so they figured out how to do it. Then they did it. And they did it using available materials. We think we’re so smart and so modern and we have “everything” figured out, but when you look at what people used to accomplish—those people probably just look down and shake their heads at us.

Bridges also make powerful symbols. If you think about it, in our dealings with those around us we are either building bridges. Or destroying them. We strengthen the bonds. Or we weaken them. Sometimes we smash them through selfishness or impatience. Sometimes we dismantle them because we’ve been hurt. We do it to protect ourselves.

I can still remember the first time I heard the phrase “no man is an island.” I was young and pretty heedless, but I still knew that I’d heard something important. Something true. We need each other. The bridge you destroy today might be the bridge you need to cross tomorrow.

And if we’re going to build those bridges, why not make them beautiful? Why not do our best work? We can figure this out. We can use available materials (hint: ourselves). We can make them beautiful. We can make them to last.

Have you built any great bridges lately? (I’m not going to ask about broken bridges. Just go fix them. You can do it.) You know I love comments. They build bridges between us. 🙂 And comments get you entered into my monthly drawing for an AnaBanana gift basket (worth $50 this month in honor of NaBloPoMo). Winner will be announced in the first blog post of the new month.

Perilously yours,

Pauline is much better with virtual/people bridges than real ones. She’s a bit afraid of heights and lousy with a hammer. She’s better with a computer. She writes books that are bridges to her fictional adventures. You can find out about them on her website or check out the navigation on this blog.