The Bridge Builder

Self-Reliance is Responsibility. When we are able to take care of ourselves, we don't add a burden to others. We are also able to help others when they are in need. I think this poem says it well:




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 the 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."

We really do have a responsibility to our fellow-man, neighbors and strangers. My mother taught us that we should leave every place we've been, better than we found it, and every person we've encountered, better than before we encountered them. Think what our world would be like if that were everyone's desire.

Have a wonderful Monday!