BRIDGES AS METAPHORS
By - Rodney Sheffer
Bridges cross brooks and creeks, canals and channels, highways and byways, railroads
and rivers. We build bridges to cross barriers, facilitate traffic and provide access. However,
bridges are more than meet the eye.
Imagine bridges as metaphors for crossing the black chasms of ignorance and superstition
to enlightenment and wisdom.
Imagine bridges as metaphors that allow transition from intolerance, bigotry and hate to
tolerance, harmony and compassion.
Imagine a bridge as a metaphor for the escape from authoritarianism and oppression to
freedom and democracy.
Imagine a bridge as a metaphor for the emergence from darkness and obfuscation, to the
light and vision.
Imagine a bridge as a metaphor that will provide a transition from innocence and naivete to
knowingness and selfness.
Imagine a bridge as a metaphor for a way to leave the stultification of the status quo behind
for the progress, development and advance of our culture.
Imagine bridges as metaphors for thought that considers and spans the contingencies of
our contemporary society and culture while honoring the verifiable truths of the past.
Imagine a bridge as a metaphor that can link an understanding of the distinction between
objective thought (science, reason, logic) to subjective thought (art, poetry, metaphor,
allegory, symbolism and myth) and the necessity of each and their appropriate use.
Imagine bridges as metaphors that allow us to pass from the insular and sterile islands of
proscribed and revealed thought to the freedom of an unfettered, creative imagination.
Imagine a bridge as a metaphor for the escape from the rigidity of dogma and doctrine to
experimentation and the exploration of new frontiers.
Imagine a bridge as a metaphor that provides access and transition from monolithic,
archaic thinking that produces intellectual inbreeding and cultural stagnation, to diversity of
thought and alternative thinking that produces intellectual
hybrid vigor and cultural vitality.
Imagine a bridge as a metaphor as an avenue of escape from the cultural baggage of earlier
generations to ascend to a higher level of consciousness.
Imagine short bridges as metaphors, and long bridges as allegories. Imagine bridges in new ways that
you never have before.