It Takes More than a Village

Some smart friends were in a small squabble about a mutual enterprise, and I stepped in to write a short note encouraging all to think larger about the project and bit smaller about self.

To try to illuminate that end, I explained how the great Cathedrals of Europe were built:

A Cathedral is not built in a day, a season, a year, or even a lifetime.

It may be 200 years between cornerstone and capstone.

How do you get a people to contribute to this Great Thing that they will never live to see completed?

And the answer is that you paint a mighty picture in words.

You tell the people you want to build a mighty monument to God.

You want to build this thing that will last forever and that will inspire the heathen and give comfort to the afraid and the afflicted.

And you have a plan.

And you unroll the plan.

It is breath-taking.

It is ambitious.

And it is all possible, you note, if every person will do his or her part.


“Brother, Sister.... I am not asking you to build a Cathedral.

“No man and no woman alone can do that.

“I am asking you to buy this one stone.”


And with that, a small  ::x::  is drawn on a single small block on the plan.

It is that man or woman’s block.  

They can see the plan and see how their stone fits within the plan. 

It is an expensive stone, for even a small stone is expensive.

It will take sacrifice but...  upon reflection... the peasant thinks he or she can do this one thing..... this important thing.... for the greater glory of God.

I told my friends this story, but it is not an apocryphal tale.

In fact, at lunch today, I walked down to the Washington Monument, which was also built in a similar fashion, one-pledged stone at a time.

If you go to the National Park Service web site, you can see pictures of what the inside of the Washington Monument looks like. Smooth as a baby's bottom on the outside, the inside is studded with inscriptions and plaques noting that this row of base stones was given by the American Medical Association, and another by the state of Pennsylvania, the people of Turkey, or the Masons.

Stones were given by the "Sons of Temperance" the "Independent Order of Odd Fellows," the "American Whig Society," "Invincible Fire Company #5," the "Columbia Typographical Society," and the "Cliosophic Society of New Jersey."

Below, for those who are interested in the history of direct mail and pamphlets, is the actual fundraising tract which raised the funds to built the Washington Monument, one stone at a time.

The fundraising appeal for the Washington Monument.

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