The road to Jerusalem.

There is a Calatrava bridge that greets you as you enter Jerusalem.  The bridge stands in gleaming contrast to everything around it.  It has boldly delicate flying trusses and arcing lines which stand in stark opposition to the square, sturdy construction of a city made wholly of the beautiful white rock known as Jerusalem stone.  It was, or so guides and cab drivers will tell you, a highly controversial architectural project.  The nature of its showiness inspired great debate about whether something so outside the visual vernacular of the city would be a thing of great beauty or merely an eyesore.  What you realize, though, after spending a few days in Israel, is that most things are potentially a source for great controversy.  And that of those controversial things, all are open to interpretation.   So my interpretation of the eye-startling structure, is that it is quite beautiful.  And like all things in Jerusalem, it is a structure built on a foundation of paradox and conversation and creativity.