Better than dirt

There was a story out of Vancouver, Washington six years ago today about foam - that’s right foam - being used as the foundation of the road under construction where I-5 intersects I-205. Geofoam blocks will “help hold up the approaches to a new bridge plus new freeway ramps connecting to it.”

Foam to hold up the approach to a bridge? We’re going to be driving over foam?

The reason for using this ‘packing-material’ is because of the “soft, unstable soil on the site. The ground is Jell-O underneath."

And, believe it or not, this foam it’s better than dirt in the event of an earthquake.

Here’s what Andrew Fiske, a geotechnical engineer with the Washington State Department of Transportation, said about the shapeable, foundational foam: “we can dictate the strength requirements.”

That right there, that statement, is so profound, so penetratingly perceptive, so gi-hugically important, here it is again:

“We can dictate the strength requirements.”

On a scale of 1-10 for the importance of history-making and history-changing decisions, nothing surpasses by way of significant preparation undergirding the ability to one day stand rock solid while everything shifts all around, than the quiet, contemplative, never-garnering-headlines agreement of a mom and dad by which they intend, day-in and day-out, to pack and shape their children with strength-dictated material.

Kids who are cut from the same block of Styrofoam that characterized their parents don’t need a Universal Visitation, government-imposed, costly-in-the-extreme, state-parenting program.

Kids who come packaged with the same structural dictates that provided the framework by which their parents were raised, and their parents before them, don’t join gangs; know their boundaries; and confine their graffiti to the art projects as assigned at school.

Personal conviction, principled conscience, and the perceptive-driven capability by which to distinguish right from wrong, are all parentally – not governmentally, nor even academically - instilled.

In fact, it may be legitimately claimed that courage and boldness and endurance and perseverance and the rather radical demonstration of such qualities - are all synonymous.

And are all best learned at home.

When all else around is Jell-0, aka our world today, may moms and dads understand and undertake their most important job – that of raising and shaping their children from such structural, strength-dictated foam-like qualities.

Those who travel over this road ahead are depending upon it.