Lately the town of Covington has begun to feel the growing pains of a new bridge on the horizon. We had known it was coming for years. We have said we needed it for years, but we dreaded the day construction began. It was much the same way when I was younger, and the old Bogue Chitto River bridge in Franklinton needed to be replaced. It had become an icon for many generations and even though it rattled and shook as I have been told bridges are supposed to do, everyone knew it was far too narrow and outdated.
Some people pushed to preserve the old bridge and perhaps even turn it into something useful. Like the old stage on the fairgrounds, even though it was obvious we didn't want to look in that direction where we once tap danced and see it gone, we knew expansion was pertinent to our growth and the welcome of even greater performers in our small town. Change is very hard. But change brings new opportunities and growth both internal and external.
As I child I would often come across a man who would brag about helping to build the Causeway Bridge. It was a huge endeavor that cost some injuries and some lives. All people were a bit in awe of anyone who helped bridge the gap for commerce, economic growth, and new opportunities creating the longest over water bridge in the country. (Or so we were told.) Doors were opened based on the sweat and labor of those willing to put in the work. To build a bridge was a tangible accomplishment.
The birth of the Northshore can be attributed to this vision. Some would complain about the population boost, but few would argue about the capabilities it brought for people to commute into the city for a higher salary and commute back home to the peaceful green hills and tall pines. It became for many the best of both worlds. Now with two sons on one side of the bridge and two sons on the other, I am grateful for the Causeway.
Bridges unite people and opportunities, but they also bring about inevitable change. And change is a frightening thing. Beryl Markham, the first lady to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean non-stop once said, "I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesterdays are buried deep, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance. The cloud clears as you enter it. I learned this late." Many of us do.
In thinking over this some weeks back I realized never once in my years have heard a person brag about destroying a bridge. Never once have I experienced a person feeling proud about destroying any type of connection that could bring about good for mankind. And yet people do it often. They destroy the opportunity for bridges to form. Change means growing and "growing pains" did not become a slang term for nothing. That formidable cloud looks like a solid wall that cannot be penetrated easily. I am certain that is what Ms. Markham was referring to as she flew the wide-open skies. Once she was within the illusion of a solid form there was not much to it at all and on the other side was one more amazing sight to witness.
Connecting one piece of land to another is no different than connecting the past to the future. The only thing consistent in life is the inevitability of change. So, when anyone reads this that is going through a really big change right now, everything is going to be FINE!
