I have held a number of leadership positions throughout my career. As is the case for all leaders, during those opportunities I attempted to inspire, motivate, and otherwise influence the listening audience, I frequently relied upon quotes from famous persons, as well as selected literary passages.
One of the most powerful literary pieces I have ever come across was written by Will Allen Dromgoole, a prolific author and poet born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in 1860. During her life, she wrote literally thousands of poems and essays, as well as thirteen books.
Ms. Dromgoole died on September 3, 1934. If that date sounds familiar to you, it may be because it was on that day that our founder, Dr. David B. Steinman, P.E., convened a meeting of the PE societies of Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. It was NSPE’s organizational meeting where the first NSPE officers were elected and the Society’s constitution was adopted. I did not know that fact when I found and began to use one of Ms. Dromgoole’s best known poems, The Bridgebuilder, as a motivational tool. To me, the coincidence of NSPE’s birth occurring on the day of her death is almost mystical.
Please read this poem from the frame of mind of a mentor. I have always believed that The Bridgebuilder embodied what NSPE is about, but now that I am immersed in the Mentoring function of NSPE, it holds even more vivid meaning for me.
THE BRIDGE BUILDER
by Will Allen Dromgoole
An old man going a lone highway
Came at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and wide and steep,
With waters rolling cold and deep.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fears 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 you this bridge at eventide?"
The builder lifted his old gray head.
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
"A youth whose feet must pass this way.
"The chasm that was 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"
