LIVING ARCHITECTURE
& Construction Management
The word BRIDGE is usually a noun.
"The stone bridge vaulted over the canal."
"The rope bridge hung in suspense over the falls."
"The bridge trussed crossly under the weight of the train."
But the word bridge can also be used as a VERB.
"She bridged the silence with her smile."
"He fought to bridge his silence and his fear."
"She burned bridges, yes. But she bridged the burnings with honesty."
Bridges transcend distilled expressions of structure and architecture, because bridges connect things that want to be connected.
One side of the canyon wants to connect with the other side of the canyon, so a bridge is built.
A bridge, bridges.
Words like "and" and "but" and "or" and "yet" connect one thought to another in literature. These are conjunctions.
Bridges are physical conjunctions.
Diphthongs are rolling vowels that blend two different sounds together to structure one meaning. Words like "boy" and "eye" and "cow" make the tongue connect through different positions in the mouth. (Did you feel the word "mouth" just move your tongue through the "o" and the "u" into the "th"?)
Bridges can be metaphysical diphthongs.
The Chinese believe that bridges have spirits. I believe the Chinese hear the spiritual diphthongs of bridges moving thoughts through the heart and into the mind, or moving thoughts from the mind into and through the heart.
I love bridges.
I could look at them all day long.
I find poetry in their structure and structure in their poems.
Bridges are romantic. They challenge. They entice. They are terrible and wonderful and kinetic. Bridges can make you want to spin your partner about and plant a big wet kiss, or bridges can thrust that place just inside your crotch up through your stomach until your heart races not wanting to take the first step.
Next week we'll talk about what it is about bridges that makes them such wonderful examples of what architecture should be.
Today though, I don't want you to think so much.
I want you to feel.
Click on "I love bridges" and download the slide show. Sit back for a few minutes this morning and simply enjoy having your brain and your heart bridged.