I think it is a good thing to build bridges...To create a way to get from one place to another. Or to permit two sides to be able to meet...
But what about the ‘bridge builder’?
Where does that person come from — and perhaps even more importantly, where is he or she going?
From a certain perspective one could say that the ‘bridge builder’ is in a pretty static position. In today’s world a lot of bridges are needed — so there are plenty opportunities to keep building bridges without ever crossing one yourself as the ‘bridge builder’; the architect of that walkway from ‘here’ to ‘there’. The ‘bridge builder’, the mediator, the moderator, the peace maker can just move on from one situation to the next; always building bridges.
Until...
In everybody’s life there comes a point of inevitable change. When one cannot do anything else than to change — to move on to something new and different. To walk that bridge and to move from ‘here’ to ‘there’.
And when someone has been the ‘bridge builder’ for as long as anyone can remember — chances are that when they finally make that all important move, everybody around them is in for a surprise! Rather than keeping the focus on building bridges, on mediating, moderating, even keeping the peace, suddenly it becomes apparent that even ‘bridge builders’ are ‘normal’ people with ‘normal’ needs and ‘normal’ emotions. People who want to move on with their lives. People who are — like the rest of us — fed up with being stuck in one place.
Yet while it seems so easy for them to build bridges for situations outside of themselves, it may not be quite as easy to get from ‘here’ to ‘there’ when it concerns themselves...
It is most definitely a step outside of the comfort zone...
It doesn’t mean necessarily that the ‘bridge builder’ will stop building bridges.
It does mean, however, that it needs to be done in a new way. In a manner in which the ‘bridge builder’ can build bridges while move forward on their own path — a mode that doesn’t get them stuck in one place while helping others moving on.
A way that may keep the peace around them, yet enhances inner peace.
It is a good thing to build bridges. To create that way to get from one place to another — a walkway on which two parties can meet. But let’s take our own responsibility and start building a bridge or two ourselves, rather than just relying on the ‘bridge builder’...
First published February 2013
