Crossing Bridges
On a rainy Christmas Day, it was a tame ride across the new Port Mann, the bridge that just a few days before dumped icy snumps on motorists, breaking windshields and denting vehicles.
The tower shows how, unlike with the Alex Fraser, the Golden Ears or the old Lions Gate, the cables pass over the heads of those crossing.
On the right, the familiar old span still remains; eventually, it will be dismantled. Back in the 1960's, an engineer friend long since retired, worked on that project. When the old bridge was new, I drove across it in a snowstorm, knuckles white on the wheel of my Volkswagen bug.
The theme this year is crossing bridges. We have already crossed one bridge into the time beyond the Mayan prophecies, feared by some, and celebrated by others as heralding a new world.
In a slightly more practical vein is the Italian proverb printed on my new 2013 "Crossing Bridges" calendar: "Mistakes are the usual bridges between inexperience and wisdom."
May this be a year of useful mistakes that lead to ever-increasing wisdom, and may all of us human beings and our world enjoy a New Year filled with the joys of adventure, learning and wonder.