Connections help us to avoid the risk of drifting aimlessly. They give our lives greater dimension, as well as a path to self-realization and fulfillment. In caring for the connections in our life, we gain the benefit for ourselves.
BRIDGES
The village of Wales has an old bridge, a single lane wooden structure that connects the meandering strands of County Highway G, where it crosses the railroad grade. The railroad is now defunct and the right-of-way’s been converted to a trail, where I ride my bike.
Like most old bridges spanning a barrier or gulf, this one gives pause to the user. Caution signs about weight and speed tell a traveler this is no ordinary stretch of road. More subtle clues, like an odd curve or a change in grade might predict a crossing ahead. The prudent slacken the pace to take stock of the conditions. Weather plays a role. Too much light in the eyes, or not enough, could lead to a mishap. There is the real possibility of catastrophe and, beyond a certain point, there’s no turning back.
The old bridge serves to get us from here to there, but also as a metaphor on how to live. We constantly connect with each other, to the past and mostly, with ourselves. Like us, the bridge is organic – cut and hewn from the living earth. And, like the circumstances which join our lives, it requires attention and care.
The modern counterpart of the old bridge is a clone of efficient expediency. Contemporary bridges blend with the route and are scarcely noticed as we whisk over them. We cross them on cruise-control, without hesitation or reflection and the legs of our journeys lose their beginnings and ends, as well as some of their character.
The future for the old bridge doesn’t look good. There are persistent threats of demolition and replacement. The savings from maintenance and the risk of liability are persuasive arguments for a county board. If they weren’t, old bridges would be more common. But if this remnant from the past must fade from the landscape, its spirit should not. Our crossings ought to be noteworthy. Our excursions need to be portioned out, with beginnings and endings, especially if we are to avoid the blurred existence of a culture in overdrive.