Bridge of Decisions

The other day I noticed an email from a friend about a writing contest in Ontario. It is a monthly contest where an image is posted and invitations go out to authors to write a compelling story, poem or whatever in one hundred words or less. It is a nice idea designed to get the creative juices flowing in a direction that they might not normally flow. I don’t have any inclination to enter a writing contest, possibly because I am afraid that I wouldn’t be any good, but mainly because I think that writing is a solitary endeavour.

I am just not that competitive. Writing on a professional level is a very difficult field to work in and just trying to get anything published is next to impossible. That is why blogs are so popular with us wanabees. I can write any kind of drivel I want and you can choose to read or not to read. I don’t really care. It is nicer if you like what I have written, but the more important thing is if I like what I have written.

The picture for this month’s competition is of a figure in black, holding a red umbrella while standing on a bridge. The bridge is shrouded in clouds and seems to be supported on the heads of creatures made of rock. Well, that is what I saw in it. It is one of those pictures that you can lose yourself in. It isn’t clear if the figure is crossing the bridge, has stopped and turned to see something behind him or maybe the destination is the bridge. It has an Oriental feel to it. I have recently been informed that Oriental is no longer politically correct and I should say Asian or perhaps Pan-Asian. I’m not politically correct, so it has an Oriental feel to it, but that just might be the Occidental in me talking.

When I first saw the picture, I immediately thought of it as the Bridge of Decisions. Our lives are filled with thousands of decisions on a daily basis. Each decision that we make is another bridge that we have crossed. Unfortunately, the bridges are not well signed. We can walk back and forth on some of those bridges, but most of the crossings are one way only. Some lead to the future and others take you back to the past. Some lead to happiness and others to an unfulfilled life. Often when we get to the other side we look back through the fog and see the bridge that we could have taken.

Beware of looking into the fog.