midweek Connect: 5/4/22 ~ Cultural Bridges

Greetings and Happy Midweek!

I saw quite an amazing structure in the news this past week - the (supposedly) longest glass-bottom bridge in the world.* The story sparked first of all memories for me - of the bridges in my life. And then, I began to reflect on several cultural facets of bridges - which I thought we’d explore today.

Technically, bridges connect people and things, defying obstacles and enabling passage from Point A to Point B. Culturally, bridges can connect people too, defying whatever lies in the way and bringing them together to dream and work toward mutually agreed upon goals. We focus on this process of bringing together, overcoming, and enabling passage as the Harbor dimension in our Global SKILLs 3D Dynamics model.*

In reflecting on bridges as part of this Harbor dimension, I like the description of who might venture across that glass-bottom bridge: people "with a head for heights”. Doesn’t that nicely describe we who strive to build cultural bridges?! At times, our efforts encounter deeply rooted differences, or fissures in relationships or misunderstandings which make getting from Point A to Point B seem impossible. But with our ‘heads in the heights’ of the enriching, sometimes even awesome, potential of building and crossing cultural bridges - we keep on trying! And, in my experience, the resulting ‘bridging’ includes enjoying both the crossing - and being together on the other side…

How about you ~ what is one cultural bridge you have crossed recently?

Share about that with a friend or note it here.

And check out the Global SKILLs LINKs below for more bridging dynamics!

Thanks for being part of this Connect community.

Until next week,

Betsy

* the bridge which inspired today’s reflection: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-10774417/The-worlds-longest-glass-bottomed-bridge-opens-Vietnam.html

** Global SKILLs 3 Dimensional Dynamics Model: 1st dimension = HOME; 2nd dimension = HOST; 3rd dimension = HARBOR (which we looked at today)

~ contact me for more information on this model and how you might use it in your current programming

Global SKILLs LINKs

~ a dynamic cross-cultural bridging venture: https://culturalbridges.global/

~ some of the world’s most technically & aesthetically amazing bridges - as I looked at these, I tried to find cultural equivalents of their unique features: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/g2383/the-worlds-most-impressive-bridges/

2022 ~ Celebrating 40+ years of working in

intercultural communications and global community building

“It takes a community to build a community”

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Please do not reproduce or share without my permission (betsy.barbour@gmail.com)