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Today I was working with one of my friends putting an old telephone pole in a hole. The reason we were even attempting this task was because of the angle that the pole had ended up at. It held a light, and was the spoke for electric wires from his house, to the light pole, on to a shed and then to the barn. Rather than being straight and doing its job of guiding and supporting all the different wires going off in three directions, it was in danger of pulling everything down around it. The other day we dug out around the base with the intention of adding some support in the form of re-bar and concrete. Over the weekend, my friend’s brother-in-law started digging at the base of the pole below the surface of the ground and found that the reason that the pole was leaning was because it was rotted away below ground level. Time, water, insects; all had contributed to cause this once healthy telephone pole to become structurally unsound and almost bring a lot of wires and other poles down with it. It made me think of my life. Of all the different choices I have made over the course of my life that have contributed to decay below the surface that in turn affects my strength of character, and if allowed to continue, can not only affect my own health and peace of mind, but also the lives and destinies of the people in my life that depend on my strength, my uprightness. Was sobering as I reflected on what I needed to do to become the straight and true person I want to be, and others need me to be. It was relatively easy to pull the old pole up, cut off the rotting, diseased wood and re-set it in a hole straight and true. Now it can fulfill it’s designed purpose once again. Wish it was that easy for me.
July 1st, 2008 at 7:43 am
Well done.
“…Wish it was that easy for me.” No, it’s not easy. But it is simple. There’s life in every breath, and in the space of a single breath, a man can change his life’s direction, his vector.
Strength and Honor,
Jason