The other night I was watching PBS and saw a show about the bridges of Pittsburgh. As a kid there was a bridge between downtown and the North Side. When I looked it up on Wikipedia, I found the following story: The Fort Duquesne Bridge is a steel tied arch bridge that spans the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh. It was colloquially referred to as the Bridge to Nowhere because it was constructed from 1958-1963 by PennDOT, and never opened for traffic until October 17, 1969.
When we look at our own personal journeys, it is sometimes very interesting to trace the origins and destinations of our bridges; where they have been and where they could be or more importantly where they are actually taking us. The journey always has a series of connectors, confluences, and mergers that were as unpredictable and unimaginable as could ever have been conceived.
Sometimes those connectors were mentors; sometimes partners, sometimes friends, but more often than not, those people who have had the most influence on our progress and on moving us toward our goals have been people who did not like, support, or believe in our work, our mission, or our dreams.
Many times, our inspiration came from the power of those people who were most passionately against us than from those who supported us. Bob Strauss in his e-How blog writes: Like duels and opera hats, the concept of mortal enemies has fallen by the wayside in modern times, and more’s the pity. The fact is, everyone can use a good mortal enemy: there’s nothing like the possibility of being waylaid, fisticuff-ed, and tied to a railroad trestle to make a guy just glad to be alive.
Perhaps some of our influences to persevere come from those that don't have faith in us or from the nay Sayers of our world that provide us the drive to prove them wrong. I would like to think that most of our own journeys are influenced by those in our personal and professional life that want to see us succeed. They provide support and council but do not tell us which bridge to take. They offer alternative perspectives and ultimately let us chose our own path. The difficult part is when you embark on your journey and you don’t have that all important input.
While each of our journeys are a series of connections as you mention, it is difficult sometimes to keep crossing those many bridges to only find that the path you have just gone down is yet again the wrong path. You can see your goal; you can envision every detail of your goal but without a road map it is like working in the fog.
With a road map of sorts (mentors, friends, colleagues, etc) one’s journey becomes a journey to somewhere and not to anywhere or nowhere.
Posted by: Mike | Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 11:18 AM