Building Bridges
Bridges mean many things to many people . One can see our life
journey as the building of bridges such as establishing relationships, developing
a language to communicate, teaching, composing music , writing letters,
publishing books, praying to God or engaging in peace talks. Each
generation is also a bridge between the past and the future.
The author, Les Coleman, points out “a bridge has no
allegiance to either side” It is
neutral, connecting and enabling both
sides. There may be uncertainty about crossing a bridge, expressed by the
French anthropologist, Jean-Pierre Vernant,
as leaving the familiar and entering
the unknown.
Most myths about life after death involve the crossing of a dangerous river –
the Greek river Styx, the Mesopotamian Hubur,
the Norse Gjoll, the Vaitarna in
Hinduism. In Muslim traditions after the Day of Judgement, all persons will
walk across a bridge thinner than a hair called Pul -e- Siraat. True believers will cross it easily while
those who have erred will find it difficult and may slip down into Hell. Zorastrianism has a similar concept of a
bridge called Chinvat.
Physical bridges are emblems of human determination,
connecting otherwise unreachable locations, whether the dangerously rickety
Hussaini rope and plank foot bridge across the Hunza river or the magnificent 102
mile Chinese Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, the world's longest bridge. San
Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and London’s Tower Bridge have become
symbols of those cities.
The Chinese have built thousands of bridges from ancient
times, many with elaborate shrines upon them. The shrines may be dedicated to
the gods of war, commerce, scholarship, or for returning souls, indicating the
aims of perilous journeys away from home. In the Dong culture, rituals and meetings were
held on bridges across rivers representing energy or chi. Brides were carried
across bridges, barren or pregnant women crossed bridges to receive a waiting
soul. Symbolic bridges like stools or wooden
planks could be used for the same purpose.
Japanese Zen bridges or hashi (edge) , an essential part of
Japanese gardens, connect the world of man to the world of nature. Splitting a bridge into two or more paths is
to confuse evil spirits who can only travel in straight lines.
The philosopher Heidegger says bridges give identity to the
banks they span, “collect and unite”
stream, bank and land into one neighbourhood. In Paris, Rive Gauche ( Left Bank) developed its own identity as
the haunt of artists, writers and philosophers, distinct from the
bourgeois Rive Droit ( Right Bank)
Bridges have a poetic symbolism. The Bridge of Sighs was the
last view of Venice convicts saw before their imprisonments, inspiring poets Lord
Byron and Thomas Hood. Die Brucke ( the
Bridge) was a group of German
Expressionist painters who wanted to carry art across to the future. Lovers
place locks on bridges in Paris, London, Rome and Venice.
Some bridges are unfortunately known as suicide bridges, a
despair caught in Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream. In Arthur Miller’s play “A View From a
Bridge”, Brooklyn Bridge represents the possibility of a new life. Noor Jehan’s
song Neher walay pul pe bula ke huray mahi kihtay reh gaya
(where are you, my lover, after calling me to meet you on the bridge over the
canal ?) has the fear of abandonment,
while Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” has soothed
generations of despondent spirits .
Castles had moveable drawbridges that could be pulled up in
defence. A 2016 issue of The
Economist uses the term “Drawbridges up”
to describe the resistance of Europe and
America to migrants and urges “Drawbridge –downers” to fight back for a more
equitable and welcoming world.
Durriya Kazi
September 1, 2019
Comments
Post a Comment