There Is No Such Thing As A Bridge To Nowhere

This morning I was listening to the 1980 Talking Heads album Remain In Light. The last, and least interesting, song on the album is called The Overload. It’s a long slow song that most times I skip over.

Today though I heard the song and made new note of it’s first line. That line is —“A terrible signal, too deep to even recognize.” 

This lyric reminded me of a scene in the novel On The Beach. On The Beach, written in 1957 by Nevil Shute, is about the few remaining human survivors, living in Australia, after a nuclear war. They are waiting for the radiation to reach them.

At one point in the novel, a signal of some kind is received from an American military base on the Pacific coast. I think it was from Washington state. The folks in Australia are hopeful that someone has survived and that there could be hope. A submarine is sent to investigate. It’s found that a coke can or something like that has fallen on the signal button and that is why the transmission is being sent.

It’s a creepy scene. The Australians explore the base in radiation suits and find nobody alive. Just an automated repeating signal that means nothing.

I thought about how this obscure 28 year old year old song that, despite mostly skipping over it, I’ve heard many times, could provide a link in my mind to a book I read maybe five years ago.  It reminded me that all things are connected. There is no such thing as a “bridge to nowhere.” Everywhere leads somewhere else.

See how the little bridge below even appears to lead in two different directions. Keep learning and keep your mind active and open and you’ll see the world for all it is and can be.