One poet said,
"An old man, traveling a lone highway,
Came at evening cold and gray
To a chasm vast and deep and wide
That barred his way at eventide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
That turbid stream held no fear for him.
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And builded a bridge to span the tide.
"Good friend," said a fellow-traveler near,
"You're wasting your time in building here.
You never again will pass this way;
Your journey is over at close of day.
You've crossed your chasm deep and wide.
Why build this bridge at eventide?"
The traveler lifted his old, gray head.
"Good friend, on the way I've come," he said,
"There follows on my path today
A youth who, too, must pass this way.
This stream, which was but naught to me,
To that fair-haired lad may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim.
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."
-Will Allen Dromcoole
The author of "Finding the Heart to Go On.", Lynn Anderson, added these lines to the poem:
"When the youth arrived at the chasm wide,
He scorned the bridge which spanned the tide.
"That bridge is obsolete to me,
I have strength to leap the stream, you see.
"But from my vantage point," he said,
I can see that an ocean lies ahead
Which never presented its challenge to you.
So how can you help me see it through?"
The old man listened, then nodded his head.
"You have taught me a lesson today," he said.
Then the traveler and youth worked side by side,
Ripped planks from the bridge
which spaned the tide,
and from these timbers tried and true,
They fashioned a vessel to sail the blue.
Then, driven by winds from the heavens above,
They challenged the ocean together in love.
Although I do not have this poem memorized, I did run the main ideas over and over on my walk today. Why? Because someone relayed to me that again they had been admonished with, (paraphrasing) "When will you people get over it?"(refering to the church closings and the consolidation of the three parishes.)
My head starts to shake everytime I hear that line. Who exactly are "You people?" I relate those "People" to the young man who comes to the bridge. He was not crying, complaining or cursing. He scorned the bridge, not the old man, as something that was holding him back. He never admonished the old man for building that structure, for the old man had done the best he could with what he knew. He simply was trying to communicate to the old man what his needs were, and, could he help him? To his credit, the old man listened and subsequently worked side by side with the youth. They fashioned a vessel to sail the ocean. THE OCEAN. The ocean with waves, and storms that neither the youth nor the old man had sailed. Where did they sail? Did they have a specific destination in mind? Where did they land? Did they languish for days without wind? become shipwrecked? I am sure that there were disagreements during that voyage. I have no doubt though, that if both parties were committed to the voyage, they pondered what to do as "We" and not "You people."
