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Friday Slide Show: Scaffolding Share This on LinkedIn   Tweet This   Forward This

24 February 2023

We human beings build towers we never ascend. They stand there like monuments whose meaning is left to interpretation. And usually reduces to just one word. Vanity.

But no tower stands alone. Sooner or later, the scaffolding crew is called to erect some temporary shell that tradespeople can navigate to the tower's sore spots for repair and maintenance.

That's when you really appreciate what any tower represents.

When you see the fragility of that scaffolding. When you behold its unevenness. When you see if rise magically and just as magically disappear a few days later.

In this case, the scaffolding had to be dismantled prematurely before an atmospheric river hit. When the storm had passed, it went right up again. That involved moving brittle roofing tiles away so the scaffold could rest on the firmer foundation of the roof. So it was even more work than usual.

But the job was done by Christmas when the prodigal congregation would see it and be persuaded the parish really wasn't in dire need of funds.

We were reminded, as we passed by that November during the restoration, of Ibsen's Master Builder.

It's the story of Halvard Solness, an aging architect who regrets the years he spent building homes for human beings.

Human beings don't know how to use these homes of theirs. Not for being happy in. And I couldn't have found use for a home like that either -- if I'd had one. (With a quiet bitter laugh.) So that's the sum total, as far back as I can see. Nothing really built. And nothing sacrificed for the chance to build either. Nothing, nothing -- it all comes to nothing.

Which seems a sad summation of a life's work. But he makes one more resolve:

Hear me, Almighty God -- you must judge me, after your own wisdom. But from now on, I'll build only what's most beautiful in all this world --

And that would be towers.

Despite his fear of heights, he celebrates this renewed dedication by climbing a steeple to hang a wreath on the just completed building. And falls to his death.

If only he had used the scaffolding.


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