Cincinnati Magazine
January 29, 2021
It’s a moldy tale from the Middle Ages, familiar to any kid schooled by nuns. Two men were winding through the streets of Paris, each wrestling an overburdened cart, each staggering to control his towering load. A passerby stopped the first man. “What are you doing?” he inquired. “I’m hauling rocks,” the exhausted worker snapped, sweat soaking his begrimed tunic. “And you?” the onlooker asked the second man. The fellow raised his head—eager, energized, face aglow with a celestial light. “I’m building a cathedral,” he replied.
Illustration by Antonio Rodriguez/stock.adobe.com