Bridges Across Time

It was the 28^th of December. As I was getting ready for our family get together, I hurriedly glanced through The Hindu to read Usha Jesudasan’s regular column on ahimsa. There was this story about 2 brothers both farmers worked in nearby plots sharing their machinery and workers. One day a small misunderstanding ruined the relationship. One day a young carpenter came looking for work. The elder brother was happy. ”I am glad you came to see me first.”, he said. “ I want you to build me a huge fence, so that my brother cannot look over it and see what I am growing.” He was going to be away for a few days, but looked forward to seeing the fence on his return. When he returned ,he saw instead, a beautiful bridge that connected his land to his brother’s. Angrily he started to walk across the bridge. But the other brother thought that his brother had forgiven him. So he took his brother’s favourite cookies and ran across the bridge to meet him and told him how much he had missed him and how sorry he was for allowing the misunderstanding to grow.

Although I was touched by the story I didn’t think about it further since I had a busy day ahead. But while at the family get together, suddenly it occurred to me how relevant the story is .Old aunts, uncles, their daughters and sons, grand children , all were having a great time at the family meet. I watched them as they laughed, danced and sang without a care in the world. I recalled how so-and-so had a fight with so-and-so years back. And how this aunt was hurt by her niece’s behaviour. Many such funny thoughts came to my mind and I wondered where have all those ill feelings gone now?And I remembered the story.

Yes, they have learnt to build bridges unlike many of us who carry the injustices done to us in our hearts. I have seen in many families hate and conflicts are carried down generations. True, some memories are painful. But it is up to us to put an end to it and carry on without the baggage of the past. If they are not healed they can be destructive .Words like reconciliation, forgiveness, understanding and empathy are still valid. Let us look at ourselves and see where all bridges need to be built or help those who need to build it.