Vestigial pillar of the middle way

Living as an Imaginal Bridge between Worlds (Part #8)

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Bridge construction: The construction of a bridge -- of fundamental historical significance to travel, trade and development -- offers the possibility of holding further insights into the cognitive process between "here" and "there". A degree of legitimacy has been given to this through metaphor in relation to cognitive behavioural therapy (Richard Stott, et al., Oxford Guide to Metaphors in CBT: building cognitive bridges, 2010).

Crucial to bridge construction (of all but the simplest) is the arch and how its form can be sustained and can thereby carry a load. Essential to the construction of an arch in traditional bridges is the function of the keystone. This may be viewed as a "vestigial" pillar no longer requiring to be conventionally grounded. This avoids the need for a pillar which would allow the bridge to be constructed using the simplest means -- as with those based on laying one or more tree logs between the two sides.

Keystones: The discovery and use of keystones must clearly have cognitive implications reflecting a breakthrough in understanding. It is out of that breakthrough that the tangible construction was enabled. However these implications are readily forgotten in the necessary focus on the engineering of any bridge. Used figuratively, keystone refers to the central supporting element of a larger structure, such as a theory or an organization, without which the whole structure would collapse. And yet it is not grounded as might otherwise be expected.

Pillars: The single arch of the Bridge of Sighs uses a keystone. But the much larger Ponte Vecchio has two intermediary pillars between the sides, namely with three arches -- each with keystones. There are habitations and shops across all three.

It is intriguing that efforts at the construction of major psychosocial structures, such as organizations (whether international or local) and communities are typically based on "pillars". For example many initiatives of the European Community explicitly refer to a set of virtual pillars, often value-based, by which the initiative is sustained (Strategic "pillars", 2008). There is less explicit reference to any "arches" linking them, or to use of "keystone" in that context -- but rhetorical reference may occasionally be made to it in relation to the connection between the pillars.

Psychosocial Rosetta stone: Although indeed "virtual", the actual function of a keystone in that context is less clear -- as with the juxtaposition of corresponding language variants on the Rosetta Stone. There is as yet no "Rosetta Stone" through which corresponding language variants of disciplines or religions can be juxtaposed, although such may be variously hypothesized (Systemic Crises as Keys to Systemic Remedies: a metaphorical Rosetta Stone for future strategy, 2008; Potential Psychosocial Significance of Monstrous Moonshine: an exceptional form of symmetry as a Rosetta stone for cognitive frameworks, 2007).

Unconventional modalities: It is unclear whether and how such construction enables people to live sustainably "on the bridge", namely "in between". However -- and irrespective of the logical exclusion of any "middle" -- people may well be obliged to discover ways to do so in managing their relationships in polarized psychosocial contexts. These modalities may necessarily be unconventional, whether loosely described as "alternative" or "informal" -- even to the point of being deprecated and criminalized from the perspectives of conventional frameworks. The dynamic relationship between "formal" and "informal" then becomes relevant (Enabling Moral Currency Circulation, 2010).

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