It’s funny what strikes you when visiting a new country.
In Norway (I’ll stop talking about it soon, I promise!), it was infrastructure.
There were tunnels and bridges everywhere, which I guess is what you need when your country is made up of mountains and islands. But these massive construction projects connected, in some cases, very tiny communities that appeared to be in the middle of nowhere.
Someone thought the investment was worth it, and it often left us shaking our heads in disbelief.
An offhand comment from a local provided a clue: “Our government has decided that not everyone should live in big cities, and if we want people living everywhere in Norway, they need to make it livable.”
Oddly, I can’t stop thinking about this.
Why? Because it represents a massive investment in [boring but expensive] stuff that supports a vision of the future, made before knowing if that vision will come to fruition. But it’s clear that if that investment is not made, the vision definitely will not be achieved.
If you were interested in short term return on investment, you’d never do it.
After that, every time we drove through a tunnel or saw a bridge under construction that would connect two tiny islands, I didn’t just see infrastructure. I saw leadership. Those routes represent a tangible, decisive commitment to an imagined vision of the future.
I wonder what investments we are currently reluctant to make because they aren’t needed yet. They’re expensive. They’re not ‘sexy.’ But by not making them, we’re guaranteeing our desired future will never happen.
