Lessons From A War Bridge

 

 

One morning, I walked out to this bridge in Mons, Belgium, that has seen so much war. It was only a couple miles on a bike trail from where we were staying, so a good destination for my daily walk. 

 

The Nimy bridge saw the first British engagement against the Germans in August 1914 in that brutal war. It was destroyed in 1918 as the war wound down and again twice during the next more brutal war in 1940 and 1944.

 

If the bridge could talk, it might tell us of the repeated folly of things that are destroyed only to be rebuilt later by the people who destroyed them. An hour by car from Mons is Brussels, the capital of the European Union, a much better way to work out problems than destroying bridges over and over. Destroying real bridges is a metaphor for other bridges that are still only partially rebuilt from 1918 or 1944. It is easier to rebuild with steel than with human societies. 

One of the reasons I wanted to take this around the world trip is that war and autocracy are once again ascendant and the window is closing. Certain routes are already closed for all practical purposes. If this bridge could talk, it would say we should have already learned these lessons.