Build Your Own Bridges
On a recent visit to New York City my family and I walked
across the Brooklyn Bridge, the famous New York City landmark, which stretches
across the East River. We shared the
crowded walkway with people speaking languages from all over the world. Despite the diverse regions and languages we
all hailed from, we were all either coming from, or going to, one of two
possible directions; Brooklyn or Manhattan.
Until the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1833, the longest bridge
at the time and one of the first steel cable suspension bridges ever designed,
the two boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn may as well have been located in two
separate states, rather than two areas of the same city. The completion of this engineering
masterpiece drastically altered the relationship between these very different
areas of New York City by making it possible for individuals to cross over to
the other side and meet their neighbors across the river.
As I walked across this majestic bridge, peering at the royal blue sky through the crisscrossed cable lines I found myself thinking about the symbolism of bridges as they span space and connect both the landmass and people to each other, forever changing both. Bridges allow us to crossover to new and different locations, meet people and experience life, ‘on the other side’ that could only have been imagined from a distant view. No matter the outcome, crossing a bridge always leads to an encounter with the ‘other side’ equally. Regardless of the side you cross over from, both sides have equal access to other; it is up to the one who crosses, and is greeted on the other side, to open up and welcome the other, if the outcome is to be positive and fruitful.
“Forging physical connections between different areas is a powerful and practical way to bring people together. These connections come to symbolize unity and friendship, bridging geographical divides between different societies and cultures” (Pearce & Jobson, 2002, p.8). Bridges provide a useful metaphor for cross-cultural encounters and the metaphor of ‘bridging difference’, or かけはし, has been very important in both my own work, and the work of the public school educators in the elementary school where I conducted research in 2009-2010. In this small school, south of Nagoya, two educators in particular, were guided by this bridging metaphor to create a welcoming and inclusive learning environment for the 83 Japanese-Brazilian students who attended the small, rural elementary school and lived in the nearby danchi. The principal believed very strongly in finding ways to bridge the cultural and language gap that had caused tension and animosity between the native Japanese and Japanese-Brazilian families who had moved into the area. For him, crossing over to those who are different to discover what we have in common, rather than dwell on the differences that divide us, is the only way to open up to, and begin building relationships with those we see from a distance, from our side of the bridge, so to speak.
かけはし, was not simply a term that he used to describe what he was doing in the many interviews I had with him, but was a very real and important part of his practice as an educator and in his life as a private individual. He saw himself as a bridge-builder, who could reach across to the two communities and bring them closer together, so that they could meet face-to-face and better understand each other. Through a series of events and special festivals the community did begin to meet each other half way and began to see each other in positive, rather than negative ways. The children and families of the school and the teachers and children in the classrooms took steps toward each other and began the journey across the bridge of difference that had once divided them.
We
will always encounter difference in our lives: cultural differences, linguistic
differences, gender differences, age differences, religious differences,
regional differences...the list can go on and on. We can also choose to stand on the other side
of that difference, like standing on the bank of one side of a bridge, and gaze
upon it from a distance, never really seeking to come face-to-face with
it. Or we can take that first of many
steps that will bring us to the other side, where the face of difference
becomes much clearer and maybe even familiar.
In fact, by crossing over and greeting those who appear so different
from one end of the ‘bridge’ we may discover that they are not all that
different after all. One can never cross
a bridge without first building it, and then taking that first step to the
other side.
Reference
Pearce, M. & Jobson, R. (2002). Bridge
builders. West Sussex: Wiley-Academy
