The burden of help.

"Help is not a service, but a relationship - and where there is no reciprocity, there is no road, only a crossing."

A man stopped in the middle of a bridge. Not because he was tired, but because he realized: too many people were crossing it, and no one asked if he could still hold them.

Everyone was in a hurry.

Some were just for a number.

Some were for a signature.

Some were for a saving phrase, an excuse, a justification.

Everyone said: "Just for a minute."

But even a minute is a burden on the bridge if it is asked for a hundred times a day.

The man had not counted until now.

He let them cross it.

Because he believed that the road was a two-way street.

That whoever crosses it will look back one day.

That whoever asks for help will ask one day:

- How are you?

But one day he noticed that every step on the bridge was one-way.

They come, they take them, they go on.

They don't ask what the bridge is made of.

They don't ask if it's cracking.

They just see how long it will last.

At that point, the man didn't destroy it.

He didn't close the bridge.

He just sat down on the railing and said:

- I'm not taking you across now. First tell me why the road is important to you... and whether I'm important in the meantime.

Many people went on in other directions.

It turned out that they didn't need the road, just the shortcut.

But some stopped.

They didn't ask.

They sat down next to it.

The bridge didn't get shorter.

It didn't get more comfortable.

But finally they not only used it - they also understood what it held.