TEARING DOWN
Please read this poem a couple of times
and think about what it says.
I watched them tearing a building down...
A gang of men in my home town..
with a yo-heave-ho and a lusty yell,
they swung a beam and the side wall fell.
I asked the foreman: "Are these men
skilled...
the kind you'd hire if you wanted to
build?"
He laughed and said, "Why no,
indeed,
Just common labor is all I need.
They can easily wreck in a day or two
what builders have taken years to
do."
I asked myself, as I went my way,
which of these roles have I tried today?
Am I a builder, who works with care,
measuring life by the rule and square,
shaping my deeds by the well-made plan,
patiently doing the best I can?
Or am I a wrecker who walks the town,
content with the labor of tearing down?
By: Gilbert Chesterton