Perspective: We are builders | Northern Public Radio: WNIJ and WNIU

I remember my first trip to see the Rocky Mountains. Finally, standing on a mountain crest, there’s that feeling that hugs you for a moment. You feel tiny, insignificant and overwhelmed.

Yeah. That feeling.

This might seem strange, but I’ve had a similar feeling when standing on a city street corner. Or when I am walking up an ornate, winding staircase or crossing an arching, wooden bridge or whispering in a cathedral.

I feel that sense of awe when I look at the large — and small — marvels built by man. And women. Human engineering.

We are builders. Go to a downtown street corner, wherever you live. Take a hard look. Document what has been built. In all directions. What you see deserves some kind of hallelujah.

Study building designs. Recognize the skills and tools involved — made more noteworthy when you flashback to when it was built.

Appreciate the amazing ability of mankind to build things. The mastery of wood and steel and fabric and chemistry — woven, welded, blended, bolted, leveled, beveled, mixed and fixed until it works.

So, no, this is not a competition with nature. Just an observation … that we are builders and have come a long way through ingenuity.

And I’m proud to be a small part of it. In our own way, with our own skills, we all are builders.

I’m Lonny Cain … and that’s my Perspective.