Letter to a Friend
proud to bring their capabilities for the good of the collective. I was chatting the other day with a project engineer who was working on a small, regional submarine cable project. He was basically in charge of the project detail planning and associated logistics. I quickly realized that he didn’t have what one might call a "submarine cable culture." He had no idea about the history of the domain, no real sense of the technology involved, he was unable to give the names of the main players, and he was unaware of the current large projects in the industry.
Jean Devos My Fiend,
42
We in France are currently celebrating the 800 year anniversary of the Reims cathedral! It is an impressive monument-a true masterpiece. The main construction took place between 1211 and 1291, roughly 80 years, under the leadership of three consecutive architects. It is easy to imagine that the number of people who worked on this program is huge. Many spent their full lives working hard, knowing that they will never see the final result of their labors. The stonemasons,
carpenters, blacksmiths, roofers, glaziers and many other specialists contributed to the construction, each one performing his limited work without the knowledge of the overall design. In other words, they probably had a somewhat limited perception of the full picture, and neither did they know that the building would have such a long life But they knew perfectly that they were building something for the glory of God, something very important that would attract the God's blessing. They were
I could not believe it! I was not at all surprised to hear that he didn't find his job particulary attractive, and that he was already looking at other opportunities. My Friend, how is it possible that this person has not been made aware that he was contributing, modestly but surely, to the construction of a Cathedral?