Builder of Bridges

Jack came across a new game that he quite enjoys called Bridge Constructor or something like that.  It is right up his alley as he has to build bridges across a variety of chasms and has to use different building materials and fit it into a budget.  It is pretty cool.  I got him the full version of the game today and we had the opportunity to work on a few bridges together.  It is challenging on some of them.  Anyhow, I was thinking about bridge building as we hung out and built bridges together and I rememberred a poem that I quite enjoy called... wait for it... The Bridge Builder.  I thought I should find it and share it with Jack, that he would get a lot out of the story.  I left the thought as I had to get ready to leave for Stake Conference.  Wouldn't you know it, Sister Brown from the Second Ward spoke and as she concluded her talk she shared a poem The Bridge Builder.  It is a family favorite apparently.  Is that something we call coincidence? I'll need to find it.  Here it is:

The Bridge Builder

The Bridge Builder

By Will Allen Dromgoole 1860–1934

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 fear 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 your strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day,

You never again will pass this way;

You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,

Why build this bridge at evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head;

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followed after me to-day

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm that has been as 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 this bridge for him!”