Swinging Bridge

Today I walked across a “swinging bridge” built originally in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). An interesting feature is the length of cables required to support the suspended bridge. Ultimately, to walk across the bridge, one must trust that the cables on both sides are sturdy enough to sustain foot traffic. Trusting that on the other side of the bridge the cables offer steady and stable support, because there’s no way to inspect it. It’s a trust, a faith, perhaps knowing.

The entry point can be inspected. Once I got on the bridge, it did sway and swing. The seeming instability caught me off guard. Yet, I remembered, this is the design feature – swaying and swinging. On the other side, I discovered two sets of stairs to enter the bridge from that side. The other side provided more support and structure than the place where I entered.

We are forgetting to plan the future. Many days, hope escapes me. It’s hard to plan for a better future when hope and joy feel elusive. We sit in sackcloth and ashes, waiting for the end rather than offering the small changes that help others. Small acts compound, maybe in magnitudes like snow.

We walk across this swinging bridge. The structure we can see reassures us that there is structure on the other side to sustain us on the trip. Yet, walking through the swinging part distracts from our understanding that the structure supports this journey even if we can’t see it.

Instead of focusing on the fear and the underlying (or outright) hostility, can we bring our awareness to offering kindness to others, not because those individuals deserve it? Instead, could we create an energy shift and propel us all across the bridge to find a stronger structure than we can imagine?