The Bridge Builder

Here's a poem for everyone who deals with young people, lest we forget...

The Bridge Builder
An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you a bridge at the eventide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."
by Will Allen Dromgoole

Everyone who comes into contact with young people throughout the day is a bridge builder. We all have some information to pass along, something to teach, some way to make life a little less treacherous for a younger person coming up behind us.

How does this poem help you deal with your teenager who refuses to come home on time or turn in any math assignments? Just keep the poem in mind when you start to lose your own focus as to why someone needs to know how to solve for x or why they take so many grades in math class, anyway. Make all your judgements with the poem in mind, because whatever you do - if you do or don't make your child do his math, do or don't make him come home on time - that's the kind and quality of bridge you are building.

You would hate for your child to get out on the superhighway of life and find out he's hanging by a rope bridge, wouldn't you?

Just something to think about.