Life Bridge
During the Christmas break I spent time with my father in country Victoria. Between spending time eating, watching the cricket, and a visit to the local brewery, he asked me: “Do you think you could improve the name for the 10 City Bridge Run?”
I thought it was a fair question, and it led into a great conversation. Some good ideas emerged, but nothing conclusive. Returning to Sydney, I was speaking with my good friend Eli who listened to the ideas my father and I had come up with. She said: “what about calling it Life Bridge”.
She borrowed imagery from a metaphor of a ‘life buoy’. Rather than throwing a life buoy to those in need, in this initiative everyone involved is helping to build a ‘life bridge’ to reduce the appalling prevalence of child mortality.
Every human bridge is in fact a ‘life bridge’, and all of these human bridges will contribute to a larger ‘Life Bridge’ presented to the G20 Summit. The ‘life bridge’ that matters is the reduction of child mortality to the many of people affected globally.
This entire project is complex and large. In fact, far bigger than I initially comprehended. The 10 City Bridge Run where I will run 10 sub-marathons each of 24 km in 10 cities across 10 countries all inside of one month commencing on 1 March 2011 is part of this broader ‘Life Bridge’.
I believe that building a ‘life bridge’ to help reduce child mortality is something few people would argue against. Whether they will make the effort to do it themselves through taking a photograph of their own human bridge/life bridge is a different matter.
Collaborating in small ways which might make a difference is important and costs nothing apart from a couple of minutes in time. I believe it is important for many people to show how they care for other people in need, even if that is simply a symbolic act. Would this symbolic act still be seen as meaningless if it were able to result in a petition that influenced a decision at the Paris G20 Summit to help address child mortality?
So what do you think of the name and imagery? Life Bridge.
A year full of new beginnings. For me, this year quite possibly will start with a ‘rebranding’ of the 10 City Bridge Run. The broader initiative will be called ‘Life Bridge’ and the ’10 City Bridge Run’ will be a featured symbolic act in this project both to draw attention and communicate the idea metaphorically. There is not change to what is going to take place, but the name change I think helps to explain it a little bit better.
Admittedly, my strength is not in the spinning and communication of ideas. I need your help. It is 1 January 2011, and most people are probably doing something more sensible than reading this blog. If you are reading this now (새해 복 많이 받으세요!!! Happy New Year!), please send me your feedback!
Building Bridges 