I’ve spent most of my life being afraid of bridges.  Most of the time they go over water and given the fact that I cannot swim, I have always looked at a bridge as something to be dreaded.  I have spent a lot of time thinking about them lately.  Real ones, virtual ones, even the bridges that exist nowhere but inside our minds and if you really stop to think about it, the bridges themselves are beautiful things.  It is whatever they are built OVER that we/I am afraid of.  I know people who have spent their entire lives looking for and photographing bridges.  I suppose they came to this conclusion much earlier than I, probably not having been encumbered by fear and dread of water.  Bridges connect us.  They give us access to people and places we never had before.  They make things easier and often, they are just really pretty pieces of architecture.  I remember once travelling over an expansive bridge that traversed a LARGE body of water.  It connected a small island to the mainland.  The island itself was really nothing special, but it was often frequented by young adults during “spring break” or vacationers.  We stayed on the island and it WAS quite lovely, quiet, alone, secluded.  You could walk out your back door and literally be on the beach.  I can still remember the way the waves sounded at night and the way the sand felt under my feet as I walked along the beach in the mornings.  But without that massive bridge, the island would have been just that….a lonely, secluded piece of land that would have never been appreciated. 

I remember as a child reading stories about bridges and trolls.  Those trolls were scary!  Ugly little creatures that lived under the bridges and hid there, skulking around looking for small children to eat!  I was recently talking to my precious husband about internet “trolls”.  This was a new phenomenon to me.  I had never heard the phrase before.  And as are most things with the internet, internet trolls can be completely different from the trolls of our grandfathers!  They may live under a bridge, but then again, they may make it their life’s mission to destroy bridges!  They may no longer eat children, who knows….they may even BE a child!  But their MO is still the same…..they skulk around looking for people to terrorize and things to “eat”.  They have nothing better to do with their lives than to poke their noses into other people’s business and make it their mission to destroy.  I remember when I first heard the term I felt sorry for the troll.  What an awful thing to be called!  I would HATE to be called a troll.  And my heart thought of all the pain and sadness that must have transpired in their life that would reduce them to nothing more than sad, pathetic creatures!  Trust me, I no longer feel sorry for them.  They take all different shapes and forms ….but one thing is ETERNALLY the same….they are ALWAYS UGLY!

My precious V….you are the most amazing bridge builder I know.  Thank you for seeing things that others don’t see, for seeing the beauty that CAN be instead of just the beauty that is!  Thank you for seeing the need to connect things and to make them flow and move.  Thank you for taking the time to build a bridge across the water, across the continents…..yes….even across the greatest expanse….time….to find me and to connect US!  No matter what happens or where this road….or bridge….leads us….you will forever be MY architect. 

Your adoring wife…..D