It Depends on the Way You Look at It...

I like bridges... and windows... and fences... and doors... and borders... 

It’s all in the way you look at it.  Some people see a bridge and resent the implication that folks on the other side can cross over too easily and enjoy comforts and privileges which they have not earned.  Yesterday I crossed a bridge that took me from France to Germany.  In spite of a long history of conflict between the two nations, the bridge has become a metaphor for the relationship between the two countries and the relationship each of those countries is establishing with twenty-six other nations in Europe. Bridges  and borders are celebrated as connections, not as barriers and separation between nations.  A major purpose of the European Union is said to find ways to overcome a long history of bloodshed that has washed over the region for centuries.  Twenty-eight nations are learning to look for the common good of all their citizens.  It’s slogging hard work, but the majority of Europeans believe in the effort.  They don’t want to go back to the old ways.

I like rivers that have grown out of small mountain streams,  

rivers that carry boats that can be reached by buses that cross bridges,

buses that deliver people like me into friendly territory to experience the world...

all of it.

...a world that has trains in it,

trains and buses and boats that make the world work.

...work that generates, of course, a lot of trash and junk that must be recycled.

...and then I go 

to a casino in Baden-Baden where a man not long ago lost a million dollars

in one day of gambling...

...and I am amazed and thrilled that I belong to a race of creatures who will eventually make all of it work

for the common good.